A blessing box is a micro food-pantry meant to serve people in a specific neighborhood or community.

Blessing Boxes offer 24 hr access to small amounts of food supplies and essential items like soap, toothpaste or deodorant, for people who need emergency or occasional food assistance. They function under the slogan, “Take what you need-Give what you can”, encouraging people to both donate and help themselves to what is offered.

Learn more about Blessing boxes through this video: CKI-Introduction to Blessing Boxes

Blessing Boxes were inspired by “Tiny Libraries” which are small boxes placed in neighborhoods that offers free books to people. The first blessing boxes began to pop up around the USA in the late 2000s, offering free food and hygiene items, but it was in the mid-2010s that they became more common and visible in different communities. Sometimes called the “small pantry movement” they are typically small boxes or cabinets placed on posts that have been repurposed to hold food items.

They may be set up on an private property and maintained by an individual, or in a public place stocked by a community group or organization. They can take different shapes and some people get creative by upcycling old newspaper racks, dining hutches or mailboxes to serve as blessing boxes. Yet all share the same mission encouraging people to take and give what they can to help others in their community.

Learn more about what running a blessing box looks like through this podcast: Impacting your Community Through Blessing Boxes

I first learned about blessing boxes in 2018 through a facebook group. I had been looking for a tangible way to help people in my neighborhood and was excited about the possibility of spreading kindness and making a difference in such a direct and tangible way. In 2019, I found an old large mailbox with a package holding section at a garage sale for $25. With the help of my husband we repurposed it with shelves for food goods and the front box was fashioned to hold encouragement cards and accept prayer requests.

We set it up in front of our home and it has been a wonderful way to get to know our neighbors, help those in need and learn about food insecurity in our community and effective strategies for combating hunger. Over the last 4 years we have helped set-up and inspire others to create over a dozen other blessing boxes in ours and surrounding communities.

Learn more about our Blessing Box, which was featured in a local news story: Bryan couple puts ‘Blessing Box’ outside front door to help those in need

In 2022 we partnered “Everybody Eats” to create a broader network of blessing boxes in our local community, Bryan-College Station, Texas. Everybody Eats is a local project started by Sarah Gaston, Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University, that looks at ways to address food insecurity and promote food justice.

As we saw the post-Covid economic downturn begin to significantly impact our community, as people struggled to make ends meet, we saw the need to provide people access to food, outside traditional social welfare channels, as well as resources to empower individuals to works towards food sustainability. Over the summer we have set up 6 new blessing boxes in different parts of our community and we are working towards creating a sharing seed library...