Backpack Ministry

Fall is here with cooler weather and shorter days. It won’t be long before we will need to start shopping for our Backpack Children’s Christmas gifts. If you would like to shop for one or more of our children please let me know. It is fun to shop for them. We provide $100.00 for every child and a wish list for that child. We wrap every gift and return them to the school just before their Christmas vacation. Thanks to everyone who has donated food, money or prayed for our Backpack Ministry. May God Bless You!

For the month of October please donate pudding cups.

School is back in session and we are once again packing food for our Backpack Children.

We have shopped during the summer and have our pantry full of nutritious food ready for the children.

We had intended to use our packing teams to prepare the food for distribution but the Covid Virus is once again a threat to groups gathering. We will continue to use only a few people to pack until the Covid numbers decrease.

Thanks to everyone who has donated money, food or prayed for our Backpack Kids. May God Bless You!

For the month of September please donate cans of Vienna Sausages.

When our students get back in class hopefully we can get back to normal at last! We are buying food to stock our pantry for the upcoming school year. Hopefully we can get back to normal with our Backpack teams once again packing backpacks weekly. I will be contacting each of our team members to verify they are still interested in packing food once each month. I am sure we will need to make some changes but we always have enough great volunteers to get the job done. We would welcome any new volunteers to become part of our Backpack Ministry.

Last winter we were given over 500 jars of peanut butter from Helping Hands. We donated many of them to other backpack programs since we could not use them all before they expired. We still have peanut butter and have donated it to our Blessing Box Ministry to be given out before it expires in August. We will be needing fresh peanut butter to distribute to our Backpack Kids. For the months of July and August please donate peanut butter. God Bless everyone who has donated food, cash or prayed for our Backpack Kids.

Another school year is behind us and soon we will begin restocking our Backpack room. We will search all area stores and the Mountaineer Food Bank for healthy food and snacks for our Backpack Kids.

On May 26th we had representatives from Mountaineer Food Bank come to inspect our facility and review our procedures. Every two years they review each agency to make sure they are following all rules. We are pleased to announce that we passed with flying colors.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed in any way to support our Backpack Ministry. May God Bless You! Please continue to pray for our Backpack children to be happy and healthy.

For the month of June please donate cans of Tomato or Chicken Noodle soup.

I am sure our Backpack Kids are happy that they have only four more weeks of school. We currently have 21 children and will furnish food for them as long as the school requests.

Thanks to everyone who has supported our Backpack Ministry in any way. Due to your help we have been able to supply our children with healthy and delicious food. God bless each one of you.

Please pray that each of our children will have a safe and happy summer.

For the month of May please donate packets of oatmeal.

For the past year even though our ABW ladies have not been meeting in person, they are still hard at work.   They have two projects ongoing.  The first is our Quarters for Grades project for Weirton Christian Center and the second is our used postage stamp mission project.  These projects have been part of the ABW for quite a few years.   There is a box on the counter in the office for your used postage stamps.  Donations for the Quarters for Grades project can be turned into the church office.    The ladies are anxious to get back to meeting in person for their monthly meetings and helping with the ABW projects.

Spring is finally here with a few warm days and spring showers. I am sure our Backpack

Ministry children are thankful to be able to play outside once again. Last fall we were given about 500 jars of peanut butter from Helping Hands. While doing inventory recently we found over 150 jars would expire before we could use them. With help from Debbie V. we learned that Fairdale Freewill Baptist could use some peanut butter for their Backpack program. We donated 160 jars to them for their children. They were grateful to receive the donation and we were blessed by sharing our bounty.

We are continuing to pack food bags for our children weekly and delivering them to Beckley Elementary School. Thanks everyone for all your prayers and support to this ministry. May God Bless You!

For the month of April, please donate fruit cups.

Spring is almost here and our Backpack Kids are soon to be back in classes five days a week. I am sure they are looking forward to getting back to a more normal routine.

We have continued to provide food every week for our children and will continue as long as necessary.

I have been amazed at the kindness and generosity of our congregation and friends that have supported our Backpack Ministry. We have been able to buy the food necessary to feed the children a varied menu and things they might really like. May God bless everyone who has supported this ministry whether it is by donations of money, food or prayers. Thank You!

For the month of March please donate Ramen Noodles.

Happy New Year! Everyone is praying for 2021 to be the year of returning to a more normal life.

Our Backpack Ministry was busy in December shopping for gifts to send to our 21 children. We had lots of volunteers who searched to find the prefect gifts for each child. When everything as wrapped and returned to the church it took two trucks to transport them to the school! Thank you volunteers for your time and talents to complete this project.

Thanks to everyone who donated money, food or prayed for our Backpack Ministry and the children served.

For the months of January and February please donate cans of beans.

Christmas shopping for our Backpack Kids has started. Volunteers are purchasing gifts for 21 children at Beckley Elementary School. Each child has a wish list for items they would like to have. The volunteers will purchase and wrap gifts to be taken to the school on December 10th. The guidance counselor will notify the parent or guardian of every child to pick up the presents from the school to give to the children for Christmas.

Many thanks go to everyone who has taken the time to shop and wrap every gift.

We continue to pack food bags to be given to the children every weekend. We plan to continue sending food weekly even if classes go to all virtual.

Thanks to all of you who have donated food, money or prayed for our Backpack Ministry. May God Bless You!

For the month of December please donate cans of Vienna Sausages.