The perfect combination of salty and sweet for the holiday season could be the annual sale of Lions Club pecans.

The mouth-watering treats, available traditionally in chocolate-covered, cinnamon-glazed, roasted and salted, or plain mammoth-sized for baking, are imported from Georgia and available locally each year during November and December.

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“There’s nothing like Lions Club pecans,” said Linda Overstreet, Millington Lions Club president and treasurer. “We only buy fresh pecans. So anything we start selling in November fell from the trees in October. So they’re as fresh as they can possibly be.”

The funds raised are used to provide hearing and vision care for low-income residents, including costly cataract and glaucoma surgeries.

“Pecans is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and 100% of the proceeds go to charity,” said Scott Shelhamer, treasurer of the Bartlett Lions Club and district governor of the Lions of West Tennessee.

His Bartlett club’s first order of pecans for this holiday season totaled $41,000, from which they expect to make a profit of $22,000 to help the community.

“We have a lot of pet projects,” Shelhamer said. “Every club looks at their community and finds the needs.”

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Bank of Bartlett has sold the pecans at its locations for the past 25 years, including this year in Raleigh, Bartlett, East Memphis, Cordova, and the Wolfchase area. They have the regular bagged pecans for $10 and log rolls for $5.

“A lot of our customers ask for them specifically because they know that we always carry them around the holidays,” said Garry Davis, Bank of Bartlett senior vice president. “They’re very, very popular.”

In addition to providing hearing and vision care, the Bartlett Lions Club also supports the Bartlett High School Marching Band, including recently helping to repair the wheels on their trailer so they could transport their instruments to band competitions.

Shelhamer noted that Shelby County has the second-highest rate of health poverty in the U.S. Overall, the Bartlett club provides 900 “miracles” per year with various eye surgeries.

“We work with the doctors to get very low-cost medical care, where Lions Clubs essentially become the insurance provider for that person,” Shelhamer said. “We don’t take money from the individuals we help.”

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When the devastating storm hit East Tennessee earlier this year, the 30 Lions Clubs of West Tennessee pulled together $50,000 to help victims with food, shelter and supplies.

The Millington Lions Club sold $70,000 of pecans last year, along with cashews and caramelized pecan turtles.

“That’s where we make most of our money,” Overstreet said.

Over the past couple of years, her club has used some of the funds raised from the tasty nuts toward a new modernized playground at Lions Park in Millington, in addition to also helping those in need with vision and hearing treatment.

“We got a $100,000 grant from our headquarters (for the park), my club put in $80,000, and I got the other $160,000 from the city, Shelby County and other businesses,” Overstreet said.

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First South Financial Credit Union also sells the pecans at locations around the city.

“We also put them in hairdressers, beauty shops, nail salons, barber shops, optometry locations and pharmacies,” Shelhamer said.

The Lakeland Lions Club even contracts with all of the Krogers in the area to sell the pecans in stores. Other Kroger stores around the area also carry the pecans.

Lions Clubs are based in 255 countries around the world, with roughly 1.4 million members. They are required by their charter with Lions International to put all of the money raised back into the good of the public.