Longfellow Middle School teacher creates shelf-stable meals for Blessing Boxes

ELYRIA — Alison Warfield had seen posts from Dollar Tree Dinners come across her social media feeds for some time. The social media accounts give viewers recipes and shopping lists for budget-friendly meal options — with most of the creator's content sourcing supplies from the account's namesake Dollar Tree stores. The account is not officially affiliated with Dollar Tree. Watching the simple, low-cost meals while a delay to federal food benefits dragged on sparked an idea for Warfield: Why not take some of the social media influencer's recipes for "meals in a bag" and put them together for those in need in Lorain County? Warfield started with a call to action on her own social media, asking friends and family to donate to her effort. "I had people donating money over the last two weeks that we've been doing this," she said. "I've gotten close to $200 from my friends." For the first week, Warfield and her 11-year-old son, Kameron, put together chicken and dumplings meal kits, with three kits placed in the Blessing Box near the Achieve Credit Union in Elyria, and the other three placed in the Blessing Box near Neighborhood Alliance in Lorain. The Blessing Boxes contain nonperishable food, toiletries and other items available for free to passersby in need. She said when she dropped off the first meal kits at each location, the small cupboards were practically bare, but as she was pulling away from the box near Elyria's Achieve Credit Union, she saw a man stop and take one of the bagged meals. "I was just heartbroken, like if I hadn't put that in there, there would be nothing for him to eat," she said. As a longtime teacher at Lorain Schools, seeing hunger within the community is nothing new, she said. Often, the only meals some of her students receive are what they eat at school, she said, and sometimes adults may go without to make sure the children in their families are fed. She hoped the bagged meals would make a difference for some, with her and Kameron packaging six meals for each Blessing Box on Thursday. Beyond the Blessing Box donations, the Warfields set aside items for a Thanksgiving Food Drive benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio organized by Kameron's school, St. Anthony of Padua in Lorain. She estimated she spent about $40 each week to make the bagged meals, and planned to continue to do so even as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds, or SNAP benefits, were expected to hit recipients' accounts soon. "People are still going to be hungry," she said. "There's still going to be those people who don't get SNAP benefits because they make a little too much money to be eligible for SNAP benefits — but that doesn't mean their family still doesn't need to eat. And if I can help a little bit, $20, $30, $40 a week, it's not that big a deal." Blessing Boxes are available at: Road to Hope Church, 158 Irondale St., Elyria Beyond the Walls Church, 101 Woodford Ave., Elyria Achieve Credit Union, 340 Griswold Road, Elyria Lorain Free Clinic, 5040 Oberlin Ave., Lorain Neighborhood Alliance, 3835 Clifton Ave., Lorain Creekside Auction Gallery, 34400 Lorain Road, North Ridgeville Avon Fire and Police departments, 36185 Detroit Road, Avon Avon Senior Center, 36786 Detroit Road, Avon Avon VFW Post 7035, 36950 Mills Road, Avon Contact reporter Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.