By Lisa Padilla

Lisa Padilla is CEO of Melba House Blessing Box.

Sixty million.

That is the number of adults and children who were estimated to be food insecure, hungry in 2020. The extreme number of people who needed food during the pandemic has resulted in people and organizations starting their own pantries and volunteering time to ensure people are fed.

I am one of them.

I started Melba House Blessing Box on April 14 of 2020 in front of my home and have helped feed over 2,500 people-- mostly homeless and senior citizens in Dallas. At the beginning of the pandemic, I saw the need for additional methods of food distribution other than long lines of cars waiting at food banks for boxes of food.

So last spring, my family and I used an old desk, painted it, made a sign that says, “Take what you need, leave what you can” secured it to our white picket fence in front of our home and added non-perishable food.

My daughter added a post with pictures of the blessing box to her social media. By the morning of April 15th the box was overflowing with donations of food and toiletries. It has continued to grow since that day funded by monetary and in-kind donations; we have partnered with local organizations to continue to supply basic needs and resources. So much food has been donated that our box has become too small. We have done porch drop-offs and shared donations with other pantries.

Over this year our box has been a distribution site for food, toiletries, clothes, school supplies, masks, hand sanitizer, voter registration cards and books.

The Blessing Box has been a labor of love for me and family and we are grateful to the many others who have donated.

Melba House Blessing Box has fed more than 2,500 people in Dallas since April 2020.

““I started Melba House Blessing Box in front of my home and have helped feed over 2,500 people in Dallas. It has been a labor of love for me and family and we are grateful to the many others who have donated. —Lisa Padilla #PowerToChangeStories” ”

Lisa Padilla is the CEO of Melba House Blessing Box, and a Public and Community Health Expert in Advocacy in Dallas. https://www.facebook.com/Melba-House-Blessing-Box-100107038615024 ; https://www.linkedin.co; m/in/lisa-padilla-ma-chwi-1669a429/ ; https://melbahouseblessingbox.org/