The Tall family’s original Blessing Box has stayed full. The other two boxes have also had traffic while waiting to be delivered to their host locations. The royal blue boxes build community and offer access to food outside of local pantry hours. Courtesy The Legacy Project Facebook page

A local family is taking action to help their community by offering Blessing Boxes — small, stand-alone boxes where anyone can leave food and take what they need.

Marissa Wallace Tall, founder of Blessing Boxes, has a five-foot tall, royal blue box sitting in her yard in Wylie so anyone can take what food they need or leave what they can. So far, there are four completed boxes: one to stay in her yard, one at Wylie Carpet & Tile and two ready to be placed in public spaces.

The first official box has been in Wallace Tall’s yard for nearly a month, and it has stayed full of food items the entire time. She said there have been opportunities for her to take extra food directly to individuals and food pantries to make sure every donation gets to someone in need.

In a time where neighbors often do not keep up with each other, Wallace Tall sees Blessing Boxes as a way for people to help each other and bring awareness to food insecurity in their communities.

“If you don’t know your neighbor, you also don’t know that they aren’t eating dinner tomorrow,” Wallace Tall said.

Her mother, Christian Care Center Executive Director Audrey Wallace, noticed more people were visiting the food pantry. While brainstorming ideas to help offset the growing need for food, Wallace Tall wondered what it would take to build a food box like a Little Free Library. She said it “snowballed” from there as her cousin Chris Campbell at Red Line Project Solutions offered to build it, and community members showed positive interest.

By Allison LaBrot

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