Buckets of Love offers food, friends

Buckets of Love

Every Saturday at 11 a.m., a group of volunteers meets in the kitchen of the First United Methodist Church in Pace, Fla. They quickly go to work making sandwiches and filling plastic tubs with bags of cookies and chips.

These church members aren’t preparing for a normal picnic. Instead, they’re getting ready to take supplies to City Hall in downtown Pensacola, where they’ll host a picnic with the homeless as part of the church’s “Buckets of Love” outreach.

“This is a great opportunity to share God’s love and, in turn, be shown God’s love,” the Buckets of Love website says.

Jenny Hurd, mission outreach coordinator for First United Methodist, started Buckets of Love in 2009 when she and a friend began handing out supplies to the homeless and needy in downtown Pensacola. They realized that food was what the people really needed, so they decided to focus on providing meals, Hurd said.

Their efforts eventually “snowballed” into the present-day outreach, a weekly picnic that provides food for 75 to 80 homeless or needy people on average, Hurd said.

The meals include a ham or turkey sandwich, a banana, chips, cookies and a drink. Hurd said she spends about $75 on supplies for each week’s picnic, using funds from the church budget and donations.

“My favorite part is seeing our relationships with everyone here grow,” Hurd said. “We get to know about each other’s lives. You become friends with them.”

Robbie Thurman started volunteering with Buckets of Love about a year ago, and quickly became a regular at the weekly event. He said his most memorable experience was when he recognized one of the men getting supplies. 

“Once I got involved with Buckets of Love, one of my former employees was in line for food,” Thurman said. “It did something to me that day. I guess that’s why I keep doing what I’m doing.”

“Hollywood” Jackson, one of the men in line for food, expressed gratitude for the group’s efforts.

“This is a thing of survival,” Jackson said. “A lot of us don’t have work, but we can come down here, enjoy the food, sit down with someone to talk to, and know that someone cares.”