PARIS — School starts on August 28, and close to 300 backpacks full of school supplies, will go to children in Oxford Hills who need them this school year.

Melinda Haines, operates The Community Angels Cupboard and Pantry with her mother, Barbara. This year, backpacks are being filled in honor of Mary Beth Caffey, who died in July after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Haines said Caffey, pastor at the First Baptist Church in South Paris, had an ambitious goal for this school year: 215.

“One of the last things she said to me was ‘you have to do 215 of them, or I’ll come down from heaven and hit you with a bat.'”

Haines is safe; that goal has been met, passed, and donations are still coming. Haines said donations are coming in from as far away as Ohio and Wisconsin.

“It’s coming from everywhere,” said Haines.

Haines said some of the students receiving backpacks are homeless, and backpacks go to counselors or case managers to give who distribute them out to students. The Community Angel Cupboard and Pantry distributes pet food, food, and household supplies to people in need, as well as families displaced by fires.

The pantry also fills up Thanksgiving boxes, and sponsors 500 local children during the holiday season.

“I have more people coming to me saying they can’t get help. They come crying in my arms, literally; sometimes we’re their last hope…we have so many amazing people helping us, and we just want to give back.”