The story as to how a box grew to be in Rippey is based in a couple of things. First and foremost and most tragic is the death of Sabrina Ray in Perry. I drive past her home every day to and from work. The fact that I’m just one person who was right there, day in and day out, yet knew nothing of her daily misery really really ate at me. I felt like I was one of many hundreds of people who failed her to be honest. How many people would have helped her and the other children in that home had we had known it. A girl starved to death. In Perry. I thought a lot and prayed about what I could do to help and I felt that I had to do something in some way.
Shortly after that, I was speaking of this to one of my friends. I knew she was part of a group of people who put the blessing box in Perry, outside the Dallas County Hospital. I asked her how much it’s used and she told me that it’s used almost daily. She told me of the people who come into the clinic, asking for a can of food to get them by. I was surprised to hear that right here in our own community, there are people who are still hungry. People who have nothing. People who are falling outside the reach of food banks, food stamps, and other outreaches that offer food. She said that the people who use the box are often the people who bring items when they have a few cents or dollars to spare.
The two areas came together on my drives to and from work. Here is a way that I could help people in Rippey, in my new community since we’ve only lived here a little over a year. We thought that Perry and other towns have summer meals for kids for free, but Rippey doesn’t have a food program. We thought there are surely families in Rippey who perhaps the parents go to work in the morning and the kids are to stay home for the day and what if there isn’t any food in the house? Then we thought there are probably older people who just don’t have enough to go around….so the blessing box in Rippey came to be.
People have already responded by contributing items! We have only restocked it once since it was put up, and we didn’t buy as much as the first time. It was humbling to see that one day we went to the box and one of the boxes of cereal was open. We looked at it to see that someone had taken enough cereal for one serving, then tied the bag shut with a twist tie and left it for someone else.
I’d encourage anyone to look thru your pantries and bring a few items to the box to share with others. It’s fun also to go to the grocery store and see how far a few dollars can go. We had one person ask us, “what if someone cleans it out?”. Well…that can happen. However I think for the most part, people will see that its meant for people in need. I’d rather risk losing what’s in it vs not doing it at all.
I want to emphasize that the box isn’t about me. Its about all of us. We are to take care of each other. A few extra dollars in groceries here and there doesn’t make much of an impact on me…but the act of buying those items and sharing them with someone who is desperate does make a huge impact on them.
-Anonymous