Some 150,000 “Buckets of Hope” predicted for Haiti
By Mickey Noah
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| A Wal-Mart store in Lexington, Tenn., has erected a customer display for the Southern Baptist “Buckets of Hope” project for Haiti. |
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| The Lexington, Tenn. Wal-Mart store has made it quick and easy for customers to buy their foodstuffs for “Buckets of Hope” by stocking the products in one place. |
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – The “Buckets of Hope” initiative for Haiti Relief has taken on a life of its own – so successful that an estimated 150,000 food buckets will be delivered to a Hialeah, Fla. warehouse in late March, and later shipped to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, to help combat hunger in the earthquake-devastated country.
Some of the state conventions announcing a goal for the number of buckets their state’s church members will contribute include Kentucky, 10,000 buckets; Tennessee, 7,000 buckets; Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, 6,000 buckets; Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina, 5,000 buckets each; Arkansas, 4,000; and New Mexico, 2,100.
Mike Gaines, state disaster relief director for the Colorado Baptist General Convention, says, “Exciting things are happening to the Buckets of Hope campaign in Colorado,” adding that churches in the Rocky Mountain State are turning Buckets of Hope into outreach efforts.
No less than the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is supporting the project – encouraging individual store managers to cooperate with Southern Baptists who come in to buy their buckets and the foodstuffs to go in them.
For instance, at a Wal-Mart in Lexington, Tenn., the store has not only promoted Buckets of Hope with a display, it is even stocking the various food products in centralized Buckets of Hope shelves, making it easier and quicker for customers to fill their buckets.
Under Buckets of Hope – first announced in January -- Southern Baptists can purchase five-gallon, plastic buckets and pack them with required foodstuffs for $30 each. The food in a single bucket can feed a Haitian family for a week. Baptists are also asked to include a $10 cash contribution – placed in an envelope and attached to the bucket’s lid – to help with the costs of shipping the buckets directly to Haiti.
The five-gallon, bucket (with a handle) may be purchased at Wal-Mart (SKU# 00982650640). The bucket must be new, unused and without any logo or other commercial imprint. It must include a tight-fitting lid. After the food has been consumed, the bucket will remain as a handy item for use by the Haitian family.
The food contents of the bucket can be generic, store-brand items, including rice, cooking oil, dry black beans, all-purpose flour (not self-rising), white sugar, spaghetti noodles, peanut butter and a zip-lock plastic storage bag. Buckets cannot contain additional or substituted food items other than those specified. Uniform buckets and food contents will minimize problems with U.S. and Haitian Customs.
Each state convention will develop a collection process and delivery deadline. States will be responsible for delivering the buckets to a Hialeah, Fla., warehouse for placement in cargo containers for immediate shipment to Haiti by the end of March.
Each of the buckets will include a label in French Creole indicating that the Bucket of Hope is a gift of Christian love and support from Southern Baptists. Once the buckets arrive in Haiti, they will be distributed by the Haitian Baptist churches.
For specific information about the food contents and how to uniformly pack each bucket, go to www.namb.net/bucketsofhope for complete, detailed instructions. The site also includes a PDF-format flyer for distribution in churches.
Southern Baptists can also donate to the Haiti disaster relief effort at www.namb.net. Click on the yellow Disaster Relief button on the far right to be taken directly to a donation form. Contributors can also send checks (payable to the North American Mission Board) to NAMB, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543 or call toll-free 866-407-6262.
Individuals can also donate via cell phone text. Simply text the word nambdr to 40579. A $10 donation will be charged to your cell phone account and sent to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
A deadline of March 1, 2010 is coming up for those taxpayers who itemize charitable deductions on their 2009 federal tax returns. Contributions for Haiti relief, including the Buckets of Hope project, by check, credit card, debit card or texting -- made between Jan. 11, 2010 and March 1, 2010 -- will be eligible for a special one-time tax deduction, according to the IRS.
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