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Wichita Falls Blessing Box Welcomes Donations for Those in Need

There is something around The Corner that's built to help those in need.

The Wichita Falls Times Record News reports the wooden box with a window, at the northwest corner of 11th and Bluff streets, is a project taken on by Jeremy Aaron, director of Corner Community Outreach Center sponsored by 10th and Broad Church of Christ.

Jeremy Aaron
The Blessing Box

Supplied with donations, the Blessing Box contains accessible, nonperishable food and toiletries.

"This is for people who get to the end of the month and are struggling," said Jenny Aaron, Jeremy's wife. "They can look in the box and find what they need."

The Aarons, who spent five years of church service in Scotland (United Kingdom) think of themselves as "local missionaries." Jenny Aaron found the idea for the Blessing Box in a YouTube video about a man from Big Spring, who built one to share food. The effort has spread.

"Anyone passing by can use the box," Jeremy Aaron said. "We put it up on Friday and it wasn't long before a man on a bicycle stopped to check it out."

Members of the church helped make the box possible. One member built it from an old cabinet while another wrote an important message on the sides: "Take what you need, leave what you can and be blessed."

"We try to keep the box two-thirds full. Flyers were distributed through the neighborhood to explain what we were doing," Jeremy Aaron said.

Donations to the Blessing Box are happily accepted. The box might contain things like canned goods like soup and vegetables to peanut butter, jelly, ramen noodles, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Band-Aids, combs, new socks, hand sanitizer, laundry soap and Kleenex.

"No glass containers, please," Jeremy Aaron pointed out. "Donations of more than a few things can be dropped off at The Corner."

The hope is that the box idea will move on to other churches.

"This isn't just for us," Jenny Aaron said. "This is for the entire community."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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