At the beginning of 2008 Manna Project International- Wilmington set off with a campaign called Go Home Barefoot to raise as many shoes as possible for the people of Nicaragua and Wilmington, NC.

The project began at two local elementary schools, Bradley Creek and College Park. Each classroom had a box in their classroom where they were supposed to drop their shoes they were wearing and then spend the rest of the day barefoot, which gave them first hand experience of what it is truly like to not have shoes to wear. However, the students wanted to give more than just the shoes off their feet, they began digging through their closets and going around their neighborhoods to collect more shoes. Bradley Creek Elementary ended up donating 700 pairs of shoes and College Park donated 250 pairs of shoes. MPI-W rewarded the classes that raised the most shoes with pizza parties and came in to talk to the students about international service.

 The same campaign was done on UNCW 's campus where students were asked to take the shoes off their feet and place them into cardboard boxes around campus and Go Home Barefoot. With about 100 participants MPI-W had a grand total of more than 1,000 pairs of shoes. MPI-W then had a wonderful dilemma, there were too many shoes! MPI-W sorted out the shoes and donated half of the shoes to a local homeless organization, First Fruit Ministries.

We packed over 400 shoes in sixteen army bags and brought them to Nicaragua. We held a shoe sale in a community called Cedro Galan. People in the community were able to buy the shoes at a price of 80 cents, much cheaper than they normally have to pay. The Nicaraguans were so excited to buy the shoes they lined up outside the building for two days and two nights! Many of them went home happy with quality sneakers and durable flip-flops.