{"id":974237,"date":"2026-08-01T20:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/974237\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T20:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:48:23","slug":"upper-darby-church-distributes-900-full-bookbags-to-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/974237\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Darby church distributes 900 full bookbags to community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of community members gathered together at Sellers Park on Saturday afternoon as Bread of Life Assembly of God Church distributed more than 900 backpacks in a festival-like atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Amid musical performances, games, inflatables and popcorn, pretzel and water ice giveaways, approximately 70 church volunteers, along with members of the Upper Darby High School football team, came together for the fifth annual Free School Backpack Giveaway\/Community Fun Day.<\/p>\n

\"SellersSellers Park was packed Saturday during the Bread of Life\u2019s Fifth Annual Free School Backpack Giveaway\/Community Fun Day. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY \u2013 DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

The Rev. Thomas Keinath, lead pastor of Bread of Life Assembly, said there were 70 church volunteers staffing the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church underwrites everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a gift to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the annual bookbag distribution, he said the church goes to 69th Street once a month and takes food and clothing to distribute there. Plus, the church also has a food pantry every second Saturday of the month.<\/p>\n

David Oduwole, associate pastor, said that the backpack\/fun day was a way of connecting with people while demonstrating the love of God.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the opportunity to connect with them and represent Christ to them and make them feel welcome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Keinath added, \u201cWe\u2019re serving our community. We want them to know that our doors are open to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe backpacks distributed Saturday at Sellers Park included notebooks, folders, index cards, pencils and crayons. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY \u2013 DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

Church volunteers at the event reinforced that message.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main motive at Bread of Life is just serving the community,\u201d Roxanne Manjal said between handing out backpacks. \u201cAnd all our people, we love to help and give back to the community. This is the way we can show Christ\u2019s love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manjal and her husband, David, work on the backpacks every year.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Oduwole, associate pastor, left, with the Rev. Thomas Keinath, pastor of Bread of Life Assembly, right. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY \u2013 DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

Alusine \u201cBrother Al\u201d Kandeh agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to give to the community in a live way,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t get a chance to see the church other than Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, as he monitored the game area, volunteering had its own rewards for the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis to me is an example of what heaven\u2019s going to look like for me,\u201d Kandeh said. \u201cJust multicultural, just everybody kind of enjoying one another. This is what I expect heaven to look like: just a party with a bunch of people that are never strangers, just family I haven\u2019t met yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlusineAlusine “Brother Al” Kandeh said the Bread of Life Assembly of God’s fifth annual Free School Backpack Giveaway\/Community Fun Day looked like what he expects heaven to look like. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

Mia, a mom at the event, said it really made a difference for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s amazing, especially for the families, the low-income families \u2026 It was my first time last year and it was so helpful. I didn\u2019t have any school supplies but then the kids were also able to enjoy the time here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph Sarjoo, a Bread of Life leader in charge of evangelism, said every year, the church increases the amount of backpacks to distribute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd these are fully loaded backpacks,\u201d he said, adding they include notebooks, folders, index cards, pencils, crayons and more. \u201cIt\u2019s good enough to get you back to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything at the event is completely donated by the church, Sarjoo said, including sunglasses, hygiene products and Starbucks mugs for the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year with the cost of everything, our budget went up about 35 to 40% from what it was last year,\u201d he said. \u201cI order all of the backpacks, I order everything from Staples, the bouncy houses, everything went up with inflation. It costs a whole lot more this year than it did last year but we\u2019re going to continue doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you can see,\u201d he said looking at the hundreds of people enjoying the day, \u201cit\u2019s well worth it. It\u2019s an investment that we will keep doing because it\u2019s well worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JosephJoseph Sarjoo, a Bread of Life leader in charge of evangelism, said the church works all year to make the Free School Backpack Giveaway\/Community Fun Day work. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY \u2013 DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

Sarjoo shared why the church puts on the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to show the community in Upper Darby the love of Christ,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, this is how we demonstrate the love of Christ. A lot of people, one way or another over the years, they were scarred by the church so we\u2019re not here to push Christianity to anyone. What we\u2019re here is just to show them the love of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

He descibed what the church wanted attendees to take with them besides the backpacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want them to walk away with is feeling that somebody cared for them,\u201d Sarjoo said. \u201cWe all know what is going on with the economy today. It\u2019s very difficult. We have a lot of single parents that are out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of community members gathered together at Sellers Park on Saturday afternoon as Bread of Life Assembly of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":974238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,7282,728,50,1448,2830,1311,11104,67,586,132,5230,40121,68,2969],"class_list":["post-974237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-upper-darby-township","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117022224820957901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}