Material and spiritual help offered in Jackson church's 'blessing box'

Historians will no doubt regard the COVID-19 spring of 2020 as a dark time, full of stories of sickness and loss of life, layoffs, cancellations and basic disruptions in the ebb and flow of daily life.

It may also be recalled as a time when people reached out to others.

First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, 206 E. Washington Street, just off the uptown roundabout, is helping those in need through its “blessing box.”

“Our former pastor, Grant Gillard, once saw a blessing box near the square in St. Genevieve (Missouri),” said Kirk Williams, a member of the Jackson church’s leadership board, called the Session.

“We built one of our own in the summer of 2018 and stocked it with nonperishables, paper products and some toiletries,” said Williams, 66, a teacher in the alternative program at Jackson Middle School.

“We have toiletries in there because people can’t use food stamps to buy them,” said the Rev. Karen Dumey, pastor of the church since August.

Food stamps are now known as SNAP, the federal government’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

On a recent weekday, canned soup, cereal, jars of baby food and peanut butter were spotted inside the wooden cabinet.

“People have come by and put in paper towels and baby wipes, too,” said Williams, pointing out people from the community are welcome to put in items or take them.

A message on the cabinet’s glass door reads: “Take what you need, leave what you can.”

Something new was added to the First Presbyterian blessing box since the start of the pandemic.

“We were cleaning out the church since we weren’t using it for worship,” recalled Williams, “and we found all these Bibles on the third floor.

“We put (the Bibles) in there and within three or four days, they were gone,” he said.

Dumey said human beings do not live by bread alone.

“This time of imposed isolation, sheltering in place, is difficult without the comfort of the Word of God,” said Dumey, a Jackson alum, class of 1976.

“There is more than one type of hunger, there’s also a spiritual hunger, particularly in this time when we are separated from one another,” she said.

In February, local beekeepers conducted a food drive to help keep the blessing box stocked.

Others, even those outside the congregation, have contributed money, Dumey said.

“We also have a table at the back of the sanctuary where members can put food items, too,” Dumey said, noting there has been no corporate worship at First Presbyterian since late March.