Not living on farms, it’s easy to forget that this time of year is harvest time around the country; a time when many of our nation’s farmers are harvesting an abundance of food. Colonial’s Communications Team did not forget. When planning the look of the fall Communiqué, an apple theme began to emerge…that got the creative minds in Communications thinking of the harvest and the plenty that most of us in the Cary area enjoy.

“We thought…we could launch a church-wide food harvest for the poor in our area,” said Paul Franitza, Colonial’s Director of Communications. As the idea began to take shape, Paul and Justin Barrett, Colonial Facilities Engineer, had an opportunity to tour With Love From Jesus (WLFJ), a triangle area ministry to the poor. After the tour at WLFJ Paul said, “This would be a great ministry for Colonial to pound [a reference to the tradition of giving pounds of staples to newly weds or others] with food.” From there, things happened fast.

Colonial’s Ministry Council agreed that launching Colonial’s first Bumper Crop would be a great way to partner with WLFJ this fall to help feed the needy in our area. “Our staff had an opportunity to serve directly with Bumper Crop. Usually we are serving Colonial’s ministries who are more on the front lines,” said Paul. But, “This whole thing [Bumper Crop] would not have happened, if it were not for the enthusiasm of our Colonial family.”

Coordinating a church-wide food drive was a huge undertaking and required the efforts of a number of ministries, joining with the Communications Team, to make it happen. The kick-off for Bumper Crop was October 11, when the College and Career Class and the Communications Team passed out one apple to everyone who came to Colonial for church that Sunday. “We wanted to get people thinking about the idea of the harvest and ultimately the Bumper Crop,” said Paul.

The next Sunday, October 18, they placed hundreds of paper grocery bags on car windshields during all three services. Each bag included instructions about what types of food was needed and where to leave the filled bags on Sunday, October 25…by their car’s bumper—creating the Bumper Crop. Bags were provided at a nominal cost by the Target Store at Southpointe; approximately 1500 bags were passed out on the 18th. “Colonial member Wayne McGrath, General Manager of Target at Southpointe, worked with Justin to make sure we had enough bags,” said Paul.

The big Bumper Crop harvest was Sunday, October 25, when hundreds of bags were left by the bumpers of cars throughout Colonial’s parking lot. During each service, middle and high school kids, along with several adult volunteers and members of the College and Career Class, worked to collect the bags. Colonial members George and Cary Farrell provided a sixteen-foot box truck from their storage business to transport the collected food. A twelve-foot trailer, provided by Justin Barrett, was also used. Both were filled to capacity and then some!

“We still have food coming in,” said Paul. When the food was delivered to WLFJ on Monday morning, the workers there said they had never seen so much food at one time. Linda Williams, Executive Director of WLFJ, estimated that the food would supply their ministry’s need for three weeks. Many in the triangle area rely on WLFJ to supply all of the food their family needs, including refugee families, the working poor and the unemployed who have been hit hard by the recent economic downturn.

There are seasons of the year when WLFJ has a hard time filling its shelves; October is one of those times. “We hope to do this at three times a year,” said Paul. Bumper Crop Sunday was Paul’s birthday. “It was a great birthday present to see the compassion that Colonial can have to do something that meets so great a need in our area…we have been given so much.”