The First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Oakland distributed 1,500 pairs of shoes to hundreds of low-income school children at the Oracle Arena during their annual Put Your Best Food Forward shoe giveaway last weekend.

More than 2,000 low-income parents and their children lined up at the Arena parking lot as early as 8 a.m. Saturday eager to receive free shoes. In Alameda County, 20,502 children ages 6 to 13 live in poverty according to the city’s census report.

“We believe that a young person who goes back to school with a new pair of shoes on feels better about him or her self, raises their self esteem, they feel better about the learning experience because they’ve got on something brand new,” said Harold Mayberry, the church’s senior pastor for the past 17 years.

When the event was being organized this year, applications began to pour in said Mayberry. After screening the applications, it was found that the average young person receiving a pair of shoes was from a family with an average annual income of $10,000.

“When you think about giving shoes to a family whose average income is $10,000, I think it speaks volumes to the need in Alameda County and a church’s effort to address that need,” said Mayberry.

For the past 16 years, the church’s parking lot has hosted this shoe giveaway, but because of an increase in sponsors like AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, Fremont Bank and others, the event moved to the Oracle Arena. The augmented sponsors also increased the amount of shoes that could be offered, from 400 to 1,500 pairs, which were all provided by Overstock.com for a fee of anywhere between $23 and $25.

Mayberry said it is not just about the shoes, but that it is about community effort. The event was equipped with different information booths that children and their guardians were required to go through in order to receive their free pair of shoes.

“The booths represent the different zones,” said Mayberry. “Everybody has to go through the health zone where there are health professionals offering advice and information and they go through a community zone where volunteers are offering information on organizations in the community.”

The day’s activities featured a fun zone, food zone and finally the end zone where children received their shoes. Only after a parent or guardian showed their government issued ID were children allowed to receive the shoes.

“This event is totally worth it,” said Oakland resident Monica Henderson, 34, who arrived at the shoe giveaway at 9:30 a.m. and stood in line for two hours with her 12-year-old son. “I was laid off in June from a public housing company in the Tenderloin and it’s been hard finding employment.”

Tyrianna Benitt, 15, from Oakland arrived at the giveaway with her grandmother and siblings, to receive a pair of white Converse All Stars.

“It’s cool [because] I’ve never been to something like this before,” said Benitt. “I told them my size and they just handed me the shoes. I like them a lot.”

Next year the First African Methodist Episcopal Church hopes to distribute even more shoes to children from low-income families who are going back to school.