More than 12,000 backpacks are expected to be donated by Alabama Baptists across the state in this year’s Christmas backpacks effort, a ministry partnership between Alabama WMU and the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.

The majority of the backpacks will be distributed to children and teens living along the Mississippi River. The ministry is an annual effort to reach some of the nation’s poorest families.

“I’m expecting this to be our best year yet,” said Pat Ingram, missions and ministry consultant for Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union.

Churches and associations have been packing backpacks in recent weeks as part of the annual ministry. The backpacks are being collected at 13 sites around the state and then sent to the Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief Center in Prattville, Ingram said. Volunteers from churches in Autauga, Elmore, Montgomery and Chilton associations unloaded the first truckload of backpacks in Prattville on Nov. 1.

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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.