Blessings Box is helping thy neighbor at Santee United Methodist Church

Miranda Williams of Lakeside is not new to helping out the community with all of her service with the Lakeside VFW Post 5867, but something on Facebook caught her attention that she could not pass up in giving it a try. Last September she saw a post called the Free Little Pantry and the woman who began it got the idea from the growing popularity of the Little Free Library that can be seen in many local neighborhoods. It is a simple of an idea as the Little Free Library, but instead of books, it is non-perishable foods and commonly used household items.

Miranda Williams of Lakeside is not new to helping out the community with all of her service with the Lakeside VFW Post 5867, but something on Facebook caught her attention that she could not pass up in giving it a try. Last September she saw a post called the Free Little Pantry and the woman who began it got the idea from the growing popularity of the Little Free Library that can be seen in many local neighborhoods. It is a simple of an idea as the Little Free Library, but instead of books, it is non-perishable foods and commonly used household items. After reaching out to a couple of community organizations she brought the idea to her church and was met with an immediate positive response. Santee United Methodist Church felt that it fit in well with its ongoing community outreach programs and took it to heart, creating the first Blessings Box in the community. The idea is simple. The Blessings Box is available 24/7 to anyone that needs to get something or wants to drop off something. Kicking it off the week before Easter, the Blessings Box is already a part of this community and its outreach is growing on a daily basis.

Williams said the woman that gave her the idea thought it would work just as well, if not better than the Little Free Library because there is so much food insecurities in our local neighborhoods, with many families struggling every day just to keep food on the table. Williams said that this does not replace the Santee Food Pantry who serves families that need more assistance and compared the Blessings Box to borrowing a cup of sugar from your neighbor.

“What appealed to me about this is that I grew up not having food sometimes,” said Williams. “I would not have gone to someone and said, ‘Hey, I need food.’ Being a kid you don’t necessarily know how to ask for those things but I definitely think that if I would have walked by and seen this at my church I would have know I could take something from it and only taken what I needed.”

Williams said that some of the people at the church to donate to the Blessings Box that it quickly grew into people in the community using the Blessing Box.

“We talked about it at the church on how this box would be filled, and it comes from the community,” she said. “People at the church can donate, but it is usually the people that have the least that give the most. When people see it or take something from it they remember when they needed something and it was provided so they are generous in giving back to the Blessings Box.”

So far the Blessings Box is seeing a good steady turnover.

“We see some leave, we see some come back and it is not just people from the church. We witness many people that are not members of the church filling it,” she said. “So far it has not only had a great reception at the church, but many people are talking about what a great idea this is and would like to see it in their community. I hope that they do.”

The Blessings Box is located at the Santee United Methodist Church located at 8964 Magnolia Ave. For more information about the SUMC Blessings Box visit www.facebook.com/santeeumc or www.santeeumc.org.