Ministry at Our Lady of Fatima serves up food and community spirit
By Allison DiGennaro
Our Lady of Fatima Parish’s Blessing Box ministry serves the Blount County community by providing food to those in need.
Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Alcoa established a Blessing Box ministry in 2022 as a way to extend a helping hand to the local community by offering free food items to those in need.
The ministry has been able to help countless individuals and families over the past three years in a way that seeks to build community and to recognize the dignity of the human person by sharing and helping in a discreet way.
With the rising cost of food and inflation in daily living expenses, there is an increasing demand to help supply food to those in need.
The ministry is a free community service that provides basic food essentials. It provides food security to a variety of patrons, ranging from a single meal to get a family through to the next payday to helping a homeless person who lives outside.
The Blessing Box is a box of hope for many people. At Our Lady of Fatima, it is a simple pantry box erected on four legs with a hinged door and a top to protect the food items from outside elements. The door has clear, non-breakable windowpanes. The inside has two shelves for stocked, nonperishable food items.
An Our Lady of Fatima parishioner donated time and materials to help construct the Blessing Box, and the parish ministry members volunteer to supply and perform general maintenance on the box on specific days of the week, Sunday through Saturday. Other Blessing Box ministry members volunteer to do random supply checks and replenish the pantry box as needed.
The parish ministry resupplies this pantry daily, as well as cleans the shelves, checks for expiration dates on items, organizes the food for easy access, and shops for food supplies.
Funds received through donations and a once-a-year fundraiser assist in keeping the ministry going each year. Support also is given through the Pope Francis Charitable Trust Fund, which is a matching-grant opportunity available to parishes throughout the Diocese of Knoxville.
“The grant plays a big part of what we can do in filling the Blessing Box,” said Nancy Blachowski, a parish ministry volunteer who works closely with the Blessing Box.
In addition to their monetary funding, a large portion of Our Lady of Fatima parishioners donate food items to keep the pantry box filled. Parishioners simply put those nonperishable food items into the Blessing Box.
The parish volunteer effort is very much alive at Our Lady of Fatima and often includes the motto of “take what you need, leave what you can.”
All the money raised through the ministry is used to purchase food for the pantry.
For information about the Blessing Box ministry, contact:
Blessing Box Ministry,
Our Lady of Fatima Parish
858 Louisville Road,
Alcoa, TN 37701
865-982-3672
Also, for questions about the Blessing Box ministry, reach out through the Our Lady of Fatima website at: ourladyoffatima.org/ministries.
