House of Raeford Farms held its third highly-popular Community Chicken Sale Tuesday in an effort to make sure people have chicken amid the coronavirus crisis. It, like the first two, drew a large number of buyers.

It was held at the SC State Farmer’s Market instead of House of Raeford’s West Columbia plant site on Sunset Boulevard in an effort to improve the process and reduce wait times.

The chicken sales are a part of the House of Raeford’s non-profit initiative, Faithful Love Offering for Christ’s Kingdom or FLOCK.

Chuck Underhill, FLOCK director, said the sales are being conducted because people are not being able to find enough fresh chicken for their families in the grocery stores. He said there are thousands of people in the community who wanted access to poultry products because they’re staying at home and eating. The chicken is sold by House of Raeford at about one-third of the store price.

The sale Tuesday began at 9 a.m. with a drive-thru format that helped speed up the process of bulk loading of the 40-pound boxes of drumsticks, thighs, tenders and wings.

The first chicken sale was on Sunset Boulevard on April 7, and there was another at the same location on April 14. Each time the amount of poultry sold has grown significantly. Tuesday, more than 300,000 pounds were available.