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Southern Baptists across the country are encouraged to raise a little dough for World Hunger relief with the help of new bread banks to be sold by Woman's Missionary Union. WMU has teamed up with Baptist Global Response, the North American Mission Board, . . . 

LifeWay, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Baptist Press to promote the fundraiser.

Each loaf-shaped bank is made of FDA-approved plastic, and has a removable lid to make donation-giving easier. Bread banks are available in quantities of 50 for $74.49, and are sold exclusively at www.wmustore.com. This site, as well as the official Southern Baptist World Hunger site, www.worldhungerfund.com, are embossed on the bottom of the bank in case churches would like to purchase more at a later date.

Kaye Miller, national WMU president, and Wanda Lee, executive director/treasurer of national WMU, first introduced the banks at the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention. The new banks replace the rice bowls that were used for decades to collect money for the Southern Baptist World Hunger emphasis in October each year. This year, offerings for World Hunger Sunday will be collected on Oct. 11.

Those who used the rice bowls in past years to collect monies for World Hunger relief efforts will remember they were made in China, not reusable, and the design sometimes allowed money to fall out of the bottom.

In contrast, the new bread banks are produced by a Southern Baptist family in Oregon, are reusable, and are designed so that donations cannot fall out of the bottom. Pat Tiller, former president for Northwest WMU, and her husband, Dwayne, own a plastics manufacturing company. They were one of several companies who submitted bids to WMU and agreed to make the banks.

"The benefits are twofold," said Pat Tiller. "We wanted to help WMU have a product they could sell at an affordable price, and help the World Hunger cause by instilling a desire in peoples' hearts to give."

Pat Tiller also said that the cause is not new to her family. In past years, Dwayne has been on several missions trips to Honduras where he helped construct water pumps for impoverished people to have clean drinking water. Because of their involvement in Southern Baptist activities, they’ve seen first-hand the benefits that these needed funds provide.

Kristy Carr, WMU representative for the World Hunger Inter-Agency Committee, said input from the Alabama Baptist Convention, which created a version of the bread bank in 2008 and distributed 40,000 to churches across the state, was extremely helpful in shaping the current design manufactured by the Tillers.

Since 1974, Southern Baptists have given more than $230 million to support World Hunger relief efforts.