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Church helps kids start school on the right foot
By Kim Williams, kwilliams@acnpapers.com
Youth from St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano gathered together Tuesday to stuff backpacks and distribute them to the church’s food pantry clients.
The church houses and supports the pantry.
“St. Andrew has done back to school drives for at least the last five years,” said Janet Collinsworth, executive director of the Seven Loaves Food Pantry. “This is the second year that Seven Loaves Food Pantry has provided school supplies to our pantry clients.”
“Each week this summer, Seven Loaves has distributed food to significantly more families than it did the prior week,” Collinsworth said. “With kids out of school, the pantry has seen the need for supplemental food more than triple what our distribution was last summer.”
Collinsworth said last Thursday was a record week for the pantry by distributing a week’s worth of food to more than 100 families in the first hour and a half.
“Seven Loaves provided food for almost 700 people through its distribution times on Thursday and Saturday last week, half of which were children,” Collinsworth said. “If the need for food is this drastic, then the pantry client families will not be able to afford school supplies. Children cannot learn and do well in school if they are not properly equipped.”
Rev. Arthur Jones, assoc. pastor of missions and young adults at SAUMC, believes the increase demonstrates a severe need in Collin County.
“With school fast approaching, we are greatly concerned that we will not be able to meet the needs of those we are trying to help,” Jones said. “We started our school supply effort in June this year, but have only collected items for about 500 children so far. For Shoes 4 Kids our initial goal was to supply one pair of new shoes for 645 kids, with each pair costing $20. Because we’ve seen so much traffic in the food pantry this summer, we have already given out 125 of our 150 shoe vouchers for Seven Loaves in just two hours.”
The recipients of the shoes and backpacks are registered families through the pantry. The families are assisted on a first-come-first-served basis with a maximum of 350 children.
“We initially set a limit of 150 children, but reached that limit in the first two hours of the first registration day,” Collinsworth said. “Stepping out on faith in our congregation and community, we expanded our commitment to 350 children. We filled that registration list in the first two registration days.”
Funds are still needed for Shoes 4 Kids to meet an overwhelming number registered and qualified through the partner organizations. St. Andrew and other area churches are partnering with Payless Shoes to provide each registered child with a new pair of shoes.
“Seven Loaves, with the help of St Andrew, Big Lots, National Charity League of Plano, Young Men Service League, Strasburg Children clothing, Office Max and a wide variety of other supporters, we’ll provide a backpack and some of the basic core supplies needed across all school levels, elementary through high school to 350 children.”
The church is still accepting school supplies for its drive. Collinsworth said they need supplies for 1,500 more children. Visit www.standrewumc.org for a complete list of requested items.
School supply items may be dropped off until the start of school at St. Andrew United Methodist Church’s Mission Center or Seven Loaves Food Pantry drop off in the Youth Rotunda, 5801 Plano Parkway.
Monetary donations are needed to provide new shoes in the Shoes 4 Kids program and may also be used to purchase school supplies which average around $44 per child in Plano.
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