Heartland Harvest Church in Sikeston hosts 12th annual backpack and school supplies giveaway

SIKESTON, Mo. (KBSI) – Todd Crumley is in his 20th year as the pastor at Heartland Harvest Church in Sikeston, and for the last 12 years, the church has helped local children from kindergarten through 8th grade by giving away backpacks and school supplies.

“Inflation doesn’t stop, taxes don’t stop, surviving doesn’t stop, the gas prices are going up,” Crumley said. “It’s hard sometimes to just even survive, and if we can be a blessing and take away some of the burden to families, you know, we just feel like right now is a great time, a great opportunity.”

Crumley said the church has provided about 200 backpacks at each of their last few giveaways, and if they have some left over, they supply the remaining backpacks to local schools. 

“When we show up, and here you go, 10, 15, or 20, it’s just a blessing to the school systems, and maybe they can help out some children who didn’t come here, but now they get to be helped, so it works out all around,” he said. 

Attendee Kris Smith’s son, Christian, will start kindergarten in two weeks. 

Smith, an educator herself, knows how difficult it can be to acquire all the necessary school supplies. 

“This kind of helps because sometimes families just need an extra hand, especially when they have multiple kids, sometimes it’s hard to get all those school supplies because we all know it’s a big list, and it’s always helpful to have like a church or the community help with that,” she said.

And Kris’s aunt, Rosemary Owens, attended the giveaway to get a backpack and supplies for her grandson. 

“My son tries to supply all the things that he needs, and sometimes he gets really short on money and everything like that, so I try to step in and try to find a resource or something to where I can help him and his son,” Owens said.