Two area grocers, in partnership with the Caldwell/Lyon Baptist Association, are encouraging continued public participation in their efforts to help victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
“Buckets of Hope for Haiti” is the name of the program, and Hancock’s Neighborhood Market in Princeton and the Eddyville Food Giant are the avenues through which local residents can make a difference.
Each store is stocked with five-gallon plastic buckets designed to hold approximately 25 pounds of food staples and cooking supplies.
The filled buckets will be collected next month and delivered through other partners directly to Haitians affected by the quake.
To participate, shoppers can visit each store and let a cashier know they want to donate.
A $25 donation will cover the cost of one bucket and all the food items to be placed within.
Another $10 will cover the cost of transporting the bucket to Haiti.
Donors can pay for the bucket itself, the shipping alone, or the bucket and shipping costs.
“We want to note both stores, because they’re both going out of their way to help us,” said Rick Reeder, director of missions for the local Baptist association.
Officials at both groceries said they were happy to do what they could to help.
“My heart goes out to the people of Haiti, because I can’t imagine what they’re going through,” said Hancock’s owner Allison Hancock Oliver. “Realistically, they’re looking at years of struggling.”
Eddyville Food Giant Manager Keith Adcock said Friday that the bucket campaign was “going fantastic” at his store.
A big response from community churches and grocery shoppers in the two weeks the collection has been under way has generated enough funds for more than 60 buckets.
Oliver reported similar numbers for Hancock’s, and Reeder said other monies donated for the cause would push the current total above 200.
Reeder said the collection would run through March 11, when a truck from the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the organization sponsoring the collection statewide, will pick up the buckets.
He hopes to have at least 300 buckets donated by that time.
The buckets will be delivered to officials with the Florida Baptist Convention, a first responder organization for Haitian disaster relief efforts.
“We will have thousands of these buckets that will go down eventually,” Reeder said.
Responders are already on the ground in Haiti to accept the buckets once delivered and get them directly to affected residents, he said.
None of the donated funds, he noted, will be used to pay for the responders’ transportation or lodging.
“We’re not buying somebody a plane ticket, a hotel room or anything like that,” he said.
“And it’s not just Baptist people. We’re just collecting it. It’s going to go to anybody that needs it when it gets there.”
Each bucket will include two 5-pound bags of rice, a 48-ounce bottle of cooking oil, 4 pounds of dried beans, a 5-pound bag of all-purpose flour, a container of sugar, two boxes of spaghetti noodles, a jar of peanut butter and a trash bag.
Details on the project are available online at www.kybaptist.org — specifically http://www.kybaptist.org/kbc.nsf/pages/haiti-buckets.html — for those wanting more information or instructions on how to assemble the buckets on their own.
Food Giant employees are assembling buckets regularly, and Hancock’s will begin their assembly process soon.
The stores are donating the buckets and food items at cost and were able to obtain discounted rates for some items because of the nature of the program, Oliver said.
“This may be a small way of helping, but at least they won’t have to be hungry.”
Hancock’s sister store in Cadiz is also participating in the effort.
