Blessing Boxes spreading across Alabama

By CNN Newsource

Published March 19, 2021 12:42 PM

Blessing Boxes spreading across Alabama (WALA) — A wave of blessings is sweeping across Baldwin County in the way of food for those in need. Blessed to Blessing Boxes for Baldwin is a growing Facebook group based on faith and the desire to help others. The concept seems simple and it isn’t new. Blessing boxes have been around for some time, even in Baldwin County.

It wasn’t until Lori Keeling started the group on Facebook that she realized the need for help and the need to help was great. Keeling got the idea from a friend in her hometown in Tennessee. She put up her first Blessing Box at RAC Health and Fitness in Robertsdale a month ago.

“This box has actually done very well, man. It’s stayed very full, but it’s also been empty quite a few times as well. They take care of it very well,” said Robbie Fox with RAC.

Keeling started Blessed to Blessing Boxes for Baldwin on Facebook to let people know what she was doing and how they could help. In the first month the group’s membership skyrocketed to more than 2,000 and there have been 60 requests for new boxes in Baldwin County. Keeling said the interest has now stretched beyond Alabama.

“I’ve contacted people in Biloxi Mississippi…Slidell Louisiana. I’ve been contacted by a lady at Ralph’s Supermarket who wants to maybe help get it through the state of Louisiana so it’s like crazy, growing,” Keeling said. “I had no idea.”

Now Keeling can hardly keep up with the demand for Blessing Boxes around the county. More than 20 are now up and friends at Ike’s Beach Services have volunteered to make more of the weather resistant boxes. The demand has gotten harder for them to handle.

“We’re building as many boxes as we can but if someone wants to build a box Hal, all you got to do is email Lori. She’ll send you a pattern,” explained owner, Ike Williams. “Billy wrote up a pattern for it…and that’s it.”

Keeling’s goal is to reach those some extra food and supplies will help but she said it’s not just those families who are touched.

“My friend, Linda Williams filled a box one day on her way to the grocery store and she went back by and she saw that that meal was gone and she felt so good that she had fed a family a meal that she doesn’t even know,” Keeling recalled. “That’s what the boxes…the opportunity the boxes give us.”

Whether you want to help or need help, finding out where these Blessing Boxes are located is as easy as joining their Facebook group, Blessed to Blessing Boxes for Baldwin.

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