‘Blessing Boxes’ set up by Girl Scouts to help people
Four green boxes are ready to be filled with canned goods and other nonperishable food items.
There are words painted on the boxes, “Take what you need, leave what you can.”
The “Blessing Boxes,” which are going up in towns in the Memphis area, were built by a group of 10- and 11-yearolds, Girl Scouts working toward their
Bronze Award who say they wanted to put their cookie sales proceeds to good use and make a difference in their communities.
“I really hope that they will inspire people to do the same thing we did and I really hope our cans really help those in need and they reach out to people,” said Jasmine Tolbert, 11. “There’s just so many people out there who just can’t get the help they need because they don’t have enough money to pay for it.”
A “Blessing Box” is a simple idea: A wooden box, often with a plexiglass window providing a view inside, installed on a ledge or wooden pillars. They look a lot like a “little free library” and are somewhat like a food pantry, but with no qualifications on who can receive food. Anyone can drop off food or other necessities, too.
About six girls from Girl Scout Troops 10340 and 10007 met this summer to make the boxes, said Julie Tolbert, troop leader and Jasmine’s mother.
With supervision, they learned how to measure wood, how to use a saw, how to put the pieces together with a nail gun, how to put the shelves together and how to paint.
One of the boxes has been installed for about a month at the Arlington Nutrition Station. Another was installed in early November at Masters Roofing in Bartlett.
A third will be installed at Square Beans Coffee Company in Collierville, Tolbert said, and they’re still looking for a business to host the fourth.
“For our girls, service is kind of like a
way of life,” Tolbert said.
Particularly during COVID-19, she wants to encourage parents to have their children reach out to others, she said, whether it’s by sending cards to veterans, singing carols outside a nursing home or donating canned goods to a “Blessing Box.”
Lisa Wen, a mother of another girl who participated in the project, said they’re still collecting canned goods to fill the boxes.
It’s an important project for the scouts, she said.
“When we go from stores to stores, like Kroger or Walmart or wherever we need to go and we stand there and collect goods for the homeless or whomever, people realize we are helping the community,” Wen said. “It will help the girls realize how fortunate they are also. It gives them something to think about.”
Madelynn Wen, 10, said she put a great deal of work into the project and felt proud when she saw photos of the first box installed in Arlington and filled with goods.
“I get to help people,” she said. “I’m coming away with a sense of accomplishment.”