Buckets for Backpacks

Last season, the University of Pikeville Women’s Basketball team scored 463 field goals, and in doing so raised $1,748 for Pikeville United Methodist Church’s (PUMC) Backpack Ministry.

The team’s involvement in the ministry began after coach Clifton Williams contacted PUMC Pastor Willard Knipp and Youth Pastor Chris Bartley, asking how the team could make the biggest difference in the lives of community members.

Knipp and Bartley told Williams about the Backpack Ministry, which provides food security during weekends and school breaks for local children. Williams pledged one dollar for every bucket his team scored. Once the team’s Buckets for Backpacks program was publicized, people in the community and around the Commonwealth matched Williams’ pledge or donated directly to the program.

The team’s involvement made an immediate impact on the ministry.

“One morning a week after the partnership with the team started, I got a call from a guidance counselor,” Bartley explains. “There was a student who had been removed from the home and was waiting for a foster family. Within minutes, we had food to that student.”

Bartley adds that if not for the partnership, which had allowed the church to purchase additional food, they would not have been able to get the food to the student in such a timely manner. Buckets for Backpacks has also given the church the opportunity to save money by purchasing in bulk.

On Wednesday evenings, the church youth group gathers to bag the food using an assembly line method. Each bag typically includes 15 to 20 items, including snacks and enough ready-to-eat food to supply three meals a day for each weekend day. Bartley takes the bags to the schools’ family resource centers on Thursday mornings. In order to preserve the students’ dignity, teachers place the bags in backpacks when students are out of the rooms for recess or planning periods. The church makes an average of 100 complete bags a month and, in collaboration with other churches, 400 partial bags a month.

Bartley (left) and Williams (right) along with the UPIKE Women’s Basketball team have far surpassed their initial goal and have impacted many young students in the region who lack food security.

Knipp credits Williams with making the partnership a success.

“It was amazing to see Coach be so passionate about this,” Knipp says. “When you’re passionate about something, it’s contagious. Coach was here every Monday morning with his check for his pledge. The project ended up raising $2.77 for every dollar he donated. His passion will continue to move the project forward.”

Both pastors also recognize the commitment of the players.

“We hosted a dinner for the team and afterward, a player handed me $50. I thought she was trying to pay for the dinner,” Bartley says.

But that player, Kayla Mullins, a junior biology major, says she was moved to help.

“Growing up, my family saw to it that I had everything I wanted, everything I needed,” says Mullins, who plans to become a pediatrician. “Kids not having something they need, we’re talking about basic nutrition here, breaks my heart. Fifty dollars might not make a difference, but it felt like the right thing to do.”

Bartley compares the philanthropy of Williams, his team, and other donors to a biblical miracle.

“This is like the story in the Bible when Jesus fed the multitude,” Bartley says. “He took what a child gave him and multiplied it to feed many. What we’re doing is because of these students. Our goal was to raise $750 to $1,000. But because of them, we multiplied our food and fed many more.”