Hope for Tomorrow

BY KRISTY HORINE

Today, a young mother feeds her toddler a nutritious dinner. A home repair program uses a shipment of nylon boards to rebuild a community. A young man gets a good night’s sleep in a new bed.

All these items food, building materials, furniture are made possible by partnerships positioned to provide the right products, at the right time, to the right places.

Just such a partnership exists between Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Operation Sharing and our new corporate partner, Convoy of Hope, which is based in Springfield, Missouri.

Operation Sharing manages two warehouses in Kentucky that receive donated goods from corporate partners. Then Operation Sharing redistributes the products to a network of more than 1,300 partner organizations across the 13 Appalachian states and two Ozark states, Arkansas and Missouri.

Brian Conley, the gift-in-kind acquisitions specialist at the Operation Sharing program in Paintsville, said partners make his job possible.

“It can be overwhelming at times to look at the needs of our recipients and to be able to fulfill their requests. We do the best we can, and we do a great job, but it’s all dependent on if these donations are available,” Conley said.

Conley has worked with Operation Sharing for 22 years. He’s seen community needs increase exponentially over the last three years. “We’ve grown our corporate partnerships and our recipient base. The need is still there if not greater than it ever was. In today’s time, with inflation, everything is high, people are hurting,” Conley said. “They’re hurting more now, than I can ever recall.”

Convoy of Hope became an Operation Sharing corporate partner in May 2023 and provides close to 10 tractor-trailer loads of essential items each month.

Hal Donaldson, Convoy of Hope’s founder, grew up in poverty. Dependent on food stamps and the welfare system to survive after his father was killed and his mother was severely injured by a drunk driver, Donaldson became determined to break those bonds of poverty.

While working as a journalist years later, Donaldson had an opportunity to interview Mother Teresa. In that conversation, Mother Teresa asked Donaldson what he was doing to help the poor and the suffering. His answer: Nothing. Mother Teresa told him, “Everyone can do something. Just do the next kind thing that God puts in front of you.”

For Donaldson, that next kind thing meant when he returned to California, he emptied his bank account, bought $300 worth of groceries, and handed them out to migrant farmers.

Convoy of Hope supports communities in need through food, water, hygiene items, and more. (Top and bottom right) Volunteers help pack items for distribution following Hurricane Idalia in Florida. (Bottom left) Convoy of Hope continues offering aid in Hawaii following the devastation left by wildfires.

Ethan Forhetz, the vice president of public engagement at Convoy, said Donaldson didn’t stop there.

“Since then, that handful of migrant farmers has become 250 million people served, and that $300 worth of groceries has become more than $2.5 billion worth of supplies given out 30 years later,” Forhetz said.

A portion of that has landed in the Operation Sharing program, and from there, into homes to meet very real, basic needs.

In August 2022, Convoy’s disaster team surveyed different regions and came across the post-flood humanitarian work CAP was doing. That natural disaster prompted the first truckload of Convoy supplies. In May 2023, Operation Sharing and Convoy of Hope solidified a partnership.

Convoy of Hope's disaster response team responds to natural disasters and other urgent events across the world to distribute essential items.

Convoy’s Director of Fulfillment Alan Dunlap said they accepted CAP as one of about 140 Hope Network Strategic Partners because they witnessed CAP’s faithful stewardship, and because the values of both entities aligned.

“We partner with other organizations who are already established and have connections with people,” Dunlap said. “We can give our donors confidence that when they give us product, it will be used in a way that we would use it. The product goes to the end user all the way down the line, with no profit involved.”

What the partnership looks like in practical terms is close to 10 tractor-trailer loads per month since May 2023, bringing items like food, clean water, building materials, furniture, clothing, and hygiene products, as well as mixed medical supplies.

“We want to highlight the importance of partnerships with other like-minded organizations, to accomplish the big tasks that are at hand. No one organization can handle them alone,” Forhetz said. “It’s time to look forward and say we aren’t finished yet. We’re just getting started and there’s a lot more that needs to be done.”

Conley agreed. “As long as the need continues, Operation Sharing, along with corporate partners like Convoy of Hope, will work together to make a difference for people in need in Appalachia.”