Volunteers from 3 diverse churches unite to fill food bags for children

Boxes of pre-packaged food items lined the floors at the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama on May 12 as members from Vestavia Hills Baptist Church; Tabernacle Baptist Church, Birmingham; and Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham, filled plastic grocery bags for the Weekenders Backpack Program. The Community Food Bank program works to end childhood food insecurity in the Birmingham area. 

Each bag the volunteers put together holds two breakfast items, two entrees, two snacks and fruit. The bags are discreetly distributed to children each Friday at schools to take home.

Weekenders Backpack Program, which started distributing bimonthly in 2007, increased distribution to weekly in 2014, serving 1,200 children every week. 

“The change to a weekly distribution cycle allows us to greater solve the problem of children going home for the weekend without any food,” said Jon Barnacastle, programs coordinator for Community Food Bank. “We (can now) provide food every weekend.”

This became possible when the three churches formed the Covenant of Action in 2014, along with the help of the New Baptist Covenant, a diverse national movement of Baptists engaged in social action including service work, advocacy, racial reconciliation and the transformation of their communities, according to its website.

‘Unifying’ community

Mike McBrayer, minister of discipleship and missions at Vestavia Hills Baptist, said, “It’s great to see the three churches come together for this common goal.”

Allan Burton, member of Church of the Covenant, said in a press release, “In our Covenant of Action we are unifying a Baptist community that has been split apart for too long. We have brought together three diverse churches for fellowship, worship and service.”

In the food bank storehouse, volunteers immediately divided tasks and began to work. One volunteer said, “It seems like such an easy task, filling grocery bags with food, but its impact on a hungry child is great. And we’re living out Matthew 25:40 as we do this together: ‘Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me.’”

Tabernacle Baptist Pastor Chris Hamlin said in a press release, “As followers of Christ, when we see human needs we meet them. … It’s not enough to preach it and teach it. My hands and feet have to move.”