What started as an extension of good will, blessing boxes at several locations throughout Plant City have become a staple for many local residents in need.
Aaron Brown, the lead pastor at Free Rider Fellowship, was first approached by a member of his congregation looking for a way to assist fellow Plant City residents. After searching for different ways to help, they settled on a blessing box. A blessing box is an outdoor pantry of sorts, providing non-perishable food and left open for both those who come in search of assistance and also those fortunate enough to be able to leave food as a contribution.
“One of our members had been brainstorming on how we can help the community and came to me with the idea of putting up a box to hand out food,” Brown said. “Of course there’s a lot of logistical questions that come up with that. I didn’t know how exactly we would staff it and do all that and he said, no, we’ll just put the box up and put on there, ‘take what you need and give what you can,’ and allow people to help each other. I said that I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but we’ll see. And it’s been a huge success.”
Their first blessing box was built outside of the church’s former location on Mud Lake Road, now home to Reformation Church. When the Free Rider Fellowship relocated to their current location on Cork Road, Brown asked if Reformation Church would be willing to leave the box in use, a request that the new residents happily accepted.
“First of all, it was a great idea,” Eric Ayala from Reformation Church said. “And what’s nice about it is that it allows us to reach out to the community around us and to give a real, tangible benefit to people that are in need and to be a help to the community rather than just an organization that stays within its own walls.”
Ayala mentioned that donations to the blessing box primarily come from members of the church’s congregation, but that they also get significant help primarily come from the local community filling the box up themselves. And Brown added that since moving to their new location, he has seen how impactful the local residents have been in keeping the box fully stocked.
“The community is really good about filling it up,” Brown said. “We stock it whenever we can and we have food that our people donate also, but it’s been really interesting since we moved out here and we built the second box. I have not had to fill it as often because the community out here is stocking it like crazy. I’m kind of shocked at how often there is someone out here.”
The early fear for Brown was that that box would gain more traction from those in need than it would for those looking to add to the box, but notes how significant the momentum has become from those looking to help others.
“In the very beginning it would empty out and we would restock it,” Brown said. “I will tell you, at the other church I would fill it up a couple of times each day at the beginning. But then once it got going and once the community realized what it was, it was kind of like a snowball effect and it just kept gaining momentum. When we left I was maybe putting food in a couple of times each week, but the people were just keeping it full. I would watch, people would go by and look at the box, see it empty and I would see them come back and put food in. It’s just a great way to help families and those who are in need.”
One key factor for why Brown believes the blessing box is such a uniquely helpful part of Plant City is the ability for those who access it to remain anonymous, allowing individuals to choose exactly what and how much they need without having to go through any other processes.
“It’s not embarrassing,” Brown said. “They don’t have to come up and ask or fill out a form or go through that process. The fact that they can come up, get whatever they need, there’s no one questioning them or giving them a hard time. And if someone takes every single thing out of the box, that’s OK. We’ll put more out here, we just want to keep blessing people and helping them any way that we can.”
If you would like to contribute or are in need of the services provided, listed below are locations of blessing boxes throughout Plant City.
Free Rider Fellowship, 2902 Cork Rd, Plant City, FL 33565
Reformation Church, 2207 Mud Lake Rd, Plant City, FL 33566
The Hull House, 203 N Thomas St, Plant City, FL 33563