On Jan. 24, about 75 volunteers gathered in the parking lot of Calvary Baptist Church, Russellville, and spent the morning bagging 8,000 pounds of apples to give to local food donation groups to be distributed in the area. The event — appropriately called an “Apple Drop” — was coordinated by the Society of St. Andrew (SoSA), a faith-based national organization whose mission is to recover extra food at the farm level and distribute it to agencies that are feeding people.
SoSA partners with farmers to identify produce that would be going unused and then use teams of volunteers to collect, organize and distribute that produce to people in need. Named for the disciple Andrew, who brought the little boy to Jesus to feed the 5,000, the organization is inspired by Jesus’ words in John 6:12 after the 5,000 had eaten their fill: “When they had all had enough to eat, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’”
In 2014 in Alabama alone, SoSA recovered 980,000 pounds of produce — equaling just short of one million servings — with the help of 4,600 volunteers.
“We accomplish our goals with the help of many volunteers and on many levels,” said Mary Lynn Botts, North Alabama gleaning coordinator for SoSA. “We do large salvage pick-ups like the 8,000 pounds of apples we bagged on the 24th. We also practice the biblical practice of gleaning, where our volunteers go into farmers’ fields and harvest produce that might be otherwise left on the vine or is going to be plowed under.”
The Apple Drop was held in Calvary Baptist’s parking lot, and included volunteers — many of whom were youth — from Calvary as well as Moulton United Methodist Church; First Baptist Church, Haleyville; First United Methodist Church, Russellville; and Leadership Franklin County Youth. The apples came from Scott’s Orchard in Hazel Green.
Tyler Malone, Calvary’s minister to students, said, “This event came about when Mary Lynn contacted our church about hosting it. This is the first time we’ve had distribution at our church and we had a lot of support from not only our church but others in the area. People were happy to make a difference.”
Botts said she opted to host this event at Calvary because she’s had a strong relationship with Faith Mission Outreach, Russellville, for a couple of years and Faith Mission is supported by Calvary. Her contact at Faith Mission reached out to leaders at Calvary and they were excited to provide the space, many of the volunteers and support in the form of prayers.
The January event at Calvary resulted in donations to 15 area feeding agencies.
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