Church plants Trinity Grace and Hope to join Boxes of Blessing.

As Redeemer distributes 10,000 boxes of food through the Boxes of Blessing ministry this December, two PCA church plants will give Boxes of Blessing to their communities for the first time, extending the reach of the boxes to the Northwest San Antonio suburbs and New Braunfels.

This year’s Boxes of Blessing event will fill 10,000 boxes with food to feed a family of four for a week. The boxes are distributed by public schools and nonprofits to families who struggle to keep enough food on the table during the Christmas holidays without the free-and-reduced-price lunches offered by public schools. 

Trinity Grace Church, planted in Northwest San Antonio in 2018 by Rev. Michael Novak and his wife, Rachel, will distribute 250 boxes. Hope Presbyterian Church, planted in 2017 in New Braunfels by the Rev. Derek McCollum and his wife, Joy, will also distribute 250 boxes.

Both churches say that although they minister in areas that may seem more outwardly affluent than the center-city neighborhoods where the boxes have historically been distributed, poverty and need are pervasive in all parts of the greater metro area.

Michael Novak says Trinity Grace will primarily distribute its boxes through three schools in Northwest San Antonio and he has been assured that those schools will have no trouble finding families who need them.

“The school counselors couldn’t believe that we were offering this opportunity,” he says. “Our daughters go to a Title 1 school where everyone receives a free breakfast and lunch. So it’s an affluent area overall, but there are these pockets of need.”

Hope Presbyterian will partner with the nonprofit Communities in Schools to distribute its boxes in New Braunfels, and will also distribute them at an apartment complex where it has been working to build relationships. As Hope becomes more connected in New Braunfels, McCollum says they are learning that the same problems present in urban areas exist in New Braunfels, which is rapidly growing along with all of the I-35 corridor. But with its origin as a smaller city, New Braunfels’ explosive growth means it now struggles with a lack of structures to address the problems that have been more commonly associated with large cities.

“There is homelessness, there is hunger, there are mental health struggles in the community,” he says.“ And we don’t have some of the resources that a big city has. There aren’t really treatment centers or homeless shelters in New Braunfels, so we have a lot of the same problems, and, in a lot of ways, fewer resources.”

Both churches say the Boxes of Blessing ministry aligns well with their goals to love their neighbors and the places where they are planted.

“Teaming up with folks like Redeemer and Boxes of Blessing makes it possible for a smaller church like us to have a disproportionate impact in our part of the city” Michael Novak says. “It also provides our families with a service opportunity around the holiday season — not just giving away money, but giving away our time and energy.”

Boxes of Blessing Box Filling Day is Saturday, December 7th from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3200 E. Houston St., 78219. RSVP to the event HERE and donate to Boxes of blessing HERE.