BY STEVE CRAIN

Special to The Pilot

Grace Church in Southern Pines recently completed a "Bumper Crop" project by collecting food for the Sandhills/Moore Coalition for Human Care and for three church pantries in West Virginia.

The Rev. Bill Fuller, Grace Church's executive pastor, says that two weeks after the church distributed shopping lists to its congregation, church members placed bagged foodstuffs at the bumpers of their vehicles. During Sunday services (at 9 and 11 a.m.), parking lot attendants gathered bags. Food items were categorized and boxed for delivery.

"We have a 'Bumper Crop' project twice a year," Fuller says. "Twenty to 30 people from Grace Church will deliver this food to West Virginia."

Fuller coordinates Grace's Bumper Crop outreach with the Rev. Dean Crane, of Wilkesboro, who commutes weekly to Bradshaw, W.Va.

"Pastor Crane oversees four churches," Fuller says. "We helped him launch a food pantry in a church in Bradshaw in December. We are going to restock that pantry and provide shelving and food for two more West Virginia churches: one in Rhodell and one in Welch."