The Times-Tribune
CORBIN — By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
More than 50 volunteers gathered in the parking lot of Central Baptist Church in Corbin Sunday to assemble buckets of food to be shipped to earthquake victims in Haiti.
“At a cost of about $30 we’ll be able to pack and ship each bucket,” said Central Baptist Pastor Darren Gaddis. “The hope is we’ll get all this done today. We’re actually one location among hundreds across the state, lots of people are doing this.”
The project is part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s national “Buckets of Hope for Haiti” campaign, which ships plastic five-gallon buckets packed with food to victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake that struck Haiti.
In Corbin alone, close to 375 buckets will be assembled — stuffed with a total of about three tons of food.
About 50 Kentucky college students, visiting Corbin through a Baptist Campus Ministries spring break trip, helped fill the buckets Sunday. Church members stood behind eight tables filled with food and handed items students items for each bucket — rice, cooking oil, pinto beans, flour, sugar, spaghetti and peanut butter.
“We heard about the program and thought it would be a very tangible way for people to participate,” Gaddis said.
Other churches and community members helped pay for the program locally, and Gaddis said Kroger and W.D. Bryant gave the church discounts on food and the buckets.
From Corbin, the buckets will be dropped off at the Knox County Association of Baptists building in Gray, one of 59 state-wide collection points. The Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief Ministry will collect all the buckets, ship them to Miami, and then on to Haiti.
