By Quinn O’Hara

Two CCCHS students are leading a project to plan, construct, and monitor a new blessing box in front of the Clay County Health Department.

Sophomore Alessia Carrales and Senior Audrey Burget are members of the local FFA group and CCCHS YLinK. They said they stepped up to lead the project after the Clay Counts Coalition identified the need for a blessing box in the northern part of Clay Center.

Burget said the box would provide non-perishable food for hungry families and kids in the area.

Carrales pointed to several statistics on Clay County from a recent Kansas Communities that Care survey and said a blessing box could be one step the residents can take to solve food insecurity in the community.

Carrales and Burget said the project would be funded by an FFA community projects grant, though the grant has yet to be approved. If the grant does get approved, Carrales and Burget expect the box to be constructed by the CCCHS Welding Class, set up at the Health Department, and ready to use by the end of the current school year.