Haitians to get help in a bucket

They are filling plastic, five-gallon buckets filled with beans, rice, flour, sugar, spaghetti and peanut butter. The food contained in a single bucket can feed a Haitian family of six for a week.

“It gives people in our churches something hands-on they could do to help people in Haiti,” Lin Honeycutt, regional coordinator for North Carolina Baptist Men, said of packing the buckets.

So far, the five Wake County churches have packed 2,900 buckets, which are part of a larger-scale relief effort from Southern Baptist churches nationwide.

“All across America, we're hoping to get as many as half a million buckets," Honeycutt said. "If you think of the math, feeding a family of six for a week, that's a whole bunch of meals."

The buckets will soon be transported to Miami, Fla., and then onto a barge to sail to Haiti.

"We want them to know there is a Jesus Christ, there is hope, and that's what these buckets are about," Honeycutt said.

The North Carolina Baptist Men also hope to soon send crews to help with construction relief efforts in Haiti.