A ministry that helps feed Kershaw County children has received a significant boost.
Second-graders at Blaney Elementary help with packing Sacks of Love.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has awarded a $50,000 Golden Spark grant to Sacks of Love, a ministry begun through Kershaw Association to send nutritionally-balanced food home with students for the weekend.
The grant was officially presented to Kathy Hall, ministry coordinator and a Kershaw Association ministry assistant, on Nov. 16 at Blaney Elementary School in Elgin, during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
“These students are facing difficult circumstances,” said Hall. “Statistics tell us that hungry children tend to have lower test scores, diminished learning capacity, more behavior problems, increased tardiness and absences. We have been given an opportunity to make a difference in their lives.”
Begun in 2009, Sacks of Love benefits more than 400 children in 19 Kershaw County schools who have little or no food while away from school on the weekend. The ministry has become a collaboration among Woman’s Missionary Union and churches across the county, and has close ties with United Way of Kershaw County.
Local businesses and groups have held food drives and given donations. Kershaw Association began to cover the cost of the canned milk given to each child when some of the churches could only afford to provide the food. With more than $12,000 spent on milk last year, coupled with decreased giving to the association, Hall said money had almost run out.
From left are Jimmy Hanf, director of missions, Kershaw Association; Marie Sheheen, United Way of Kershaw County (Sheheen was the Golden Spark winner who chose Sacks of Love to be the recipient of the grant); Kathy Hall; and Joe Quinlan, manager of Wal-Mart, Camden.“In October, churches were coming to me for the next two-week supply for Sacks of Love, and I didn’t have enough money to make the next purchase. Then I got a call from Wal-Mart,” she said.
The churches that partner with Sacks of Love provide the food for a particular weekend and coordinate the assembly and delivery of the bags of food to the schools. On the day Wal-Mart awarded the grant, second-graders at Blaney Elementary helped fill 48 bags with food provided by Union Baptist Church, Elgin. The bags were filled with easy-to-open nonperishables like canned fruit, granola bars, vienna sausages, cereal and canned milk. The food is discretely given to students identified by school staff as being at-risk on the last day before a weekend or holiday vacation.
Sacks of Love should receive the grant funds before the end of the year, and Harvest Hope Food Bank will serve as the administrator over the next three years. Eric Roberts, child feeding coordinator with Harvest Hope, said one in four children in South Carolina goes to bed hungry, and those numbers are on the rise. He said programs like Sacks of Love are stepping in when support is needed most. “The partnership between faith-based organizations and schools is where it’s at,” Roberts said.
For Hall, Sacks of Love is a way to share God’s love by meeting basic needs, and the grant means more of those basic needs can be met in Kershaw County.
“I’m not concerned with numbers and needs rising,” Hall said. “Jesus fed the 5,000, and he will do it again.” – SCBC