Selma Roots Thrift Store expands to support food ministry serving Selma and the Black Belt

Since Selma Roots Thrift Store opened a year ago, business has been so good that the store, located in the old Sears Appliance building on Citizen’s Parkway, has expanded. 

So has the food ministry that the thrift store supports.  

Owner Betty Oldroyd said, “Selma and the surrounding communities have supported me so well. We’ve gotten in so many donations.” 

All those donations mean the back of the store has been converted to sales space.  

A common misconception is that Selma Roots is part of Gospel Tabernacle Church. Although Oldroyd and Pastor John Grayson have been business partners for 14 years, Oldroyd said, “I’m separate from the church. Son Light Center is the name of my ministry.” 

Son Light Center is a food ministry. All the money raised at Selma Roots goes to buy food which Oldroyd distributes to families in need in the Black Belt.  

There are regular times and places for the food deliveries. She’s at Bloch Park in Selma every third Thursday, and she makes regular trips to Camden and Uniontown among other towns in the Black Belt.  

Some donations have to go out immediately, like 20 pallets of fresh cantaloupes that were donated recently. “Twenty pallets of cantaloupes is a lot of cantaloupes,” Oldroyd said.“It’s got to go out that day.” Oldroyd said she got on the phone to her volunteers to take the cantaloupes to their churches, and she went to other places like George Washington Carver Homes in Selma and some projects in Camden and Uniontown.  

When there is a food giveaway, Oldroyd said it will be posted on social media. Selma Roots can be found on Facebook and Instagram. There is a link to both on the website, which is at www.selmaroots.com.  

The food ministry is not the only way Oldroyd is able to help. The store itself has become a big part of her ministry helping people. “God sends people in here all the time,” Oldroyd said, referring to both customers and volunteers. “It’s more like a church to me.”  

She said many that come in “didn’t have any purpose. So, coming and volunteering in the store gives them purpose.”  

Oldroyd was born and raised in Columbiana, where in 1993 she started her first antique store. She moved to a building in Jemison in 1994 where she would have customers coming in asking if they could pawn items to get food. This is where the idea of her food ministry was born. 

In 2004 Oldroyd formed the 501(c)3 Son Light Center and started a small food ministry. As the ministry expanded, she opened a homeless shelter in Jemison and expanded her reach when a food delivery truck was donated. With that, she said God told her to serve needy in Uniontown and Camden. 

Oldroyd began serving the Selma community in 2014 alongside Grayson. In 2017 she opened Never Forgotten Treasures in Selmont to help raise money for the food ministry. That led to her opening Selma Roots on Citizens Parkway in Selma just a year ago.  

She added that this most recent expansion of Selma Roots is not the last one. She said more growth is on the way.  

Since 2021, The University of Alabama Culver School of Business has helped the ministry as part of their long-term commitment to helping Selma with economic development. Students and faculty have been assisting with food giveaways and volunteering in the store. 

There is always a need for volunteers, and there is always a need for donations, according to Oldroyd. Anyone interested can call 334-431-5133. Store hours are Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.