Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Operation Sharing Program received a donation of 5,000 pairs of new children’s shoes from Rabbi Greg’s Shoe by Shoe Mission, based in Macon, Georgia. Operation Sharing will distribute the shoes to its community partners, which include nonprofit organizations, community-based agencies, churches, and schools, that will help provide the shoes to children in need. 

Oak Grove Elementary School in Corbin, Kentucky, a long-time partner of Operation Sharing, received around 1,600 pairs of the donated shoes to distribute to students through its Family Resource Center (FRC). Monday, May 2, students picked and tried on their new shoes during a distribution hosted by the FRC at the school. 

“This donation is meeting a great need for many of our students,” said Jodie Elliott, the FRC coordinator at Oak Grove Elementary. “CAP is such a blessing to us and we greatly appreciate the essential items we receive from Operation Sharing so we can continue to meet the needs of our students.”

The remaining shoes from Monday's distribution will be distributed at Books, Burgers, and Bases, a county-wide literacy event for children in Whitley County. 

“Rabbi Greg’s Shoe by Shoe Mission’s generous donation of shoes will allow Operation Sharing to not only put new, quality shoes on the feet of Appalachian children, but bring smiles to their faces,” said Jeff Burchett, director of CAP’s Operation Sharing Program. “This generous act of kindness will make a big impact in the region.” 

Rabbi Greg’s Shoe by Shoe Mission is a cooperative effort between Greg Hershberg, senior rabbi at Beth Yeshua International, in Macon, Georgia, his congregation, and the Forster Foundation. The mission has a goal of purchasing and distributing 50,000 pairs of shoes to children in need by the end of the year. Since January, the mission has purchased and distributed 20,000 pairs of shoes to several agencies.  

“Shoe by Shoe is one of many missions our congregation supports, both internationally and locally. When we had the idea for this mission we went for it, and it has been very successful,” Hershberg said. “We look for quality agencies to partner with that we know will get these shoes to children in need, and CAP is one of those.” 

Christian Appalachian Project's Operation Sharing Program partners with over 1,300 nonprofit organizations, community-based agencies, churches, and schools across all 13 Appalachian states, as well as Arkansas and Missouri, to collect and deliver donated goods throughout Appalachia. In nearly 40 years, Operation Sharing has delivered more than $2 billion worth of donated materials to more than 1.5 million people. For more information, visit christianapp.org/operation-sharing.