Structure offers food and other items to those in need

The Coal Grove Memorial United Methodist Church has a new feature out front — a blessing box.

“We had a family in our church that had made this blessing box,” Pastor Brad Jenkins explained. “The concept is people leave items that can be used by others.”

This includes non-perishable food items, toiletries and paper products, cleaning items, and things like coats, socks and gloves.

There is no need to sign-up or stand in line or anything of the sort, Jenkins explained. Instead, he said, “anybody can come up freely and take what they need.”

“If they need shampoo, and there is a bottle of shampoo in there, they can take that,” Jenkins said.

The box, which was built by the Morris family, is around six feet tall, but the interior space that holds items is “about three feet tall and a couple of feet deep,” Jenkins said.

“It’s not meant to hold a lot of items,” he said. “But things that are there if they are needed.”

The family that built it together, Dale, Jill and Levi Morris, were inspired after seeing similar boxes at other churches in the area, according to Jenkins.

“They had seen it done (elsewhere) and felt a need to put one up in our area as well,” Jenkins explained.

It’s already attracting attention from good Samaritans too.

“I went out to check yesterday and there were already some food items and toiletries left,” Jenkins said.

The Coal Grove United Methodist Church is located at 222 Memorial Street in Coal Grove.