Blessings Board Tours County Neighborhoods

Yesterday as both a Citrus County Blessings Board of Directors member and a representative of the Citrus County School Board, I joined many of our Blessings Board members on a tour of our county’s neighborhoods to see where many of our Blessing’s students live to have a better understanding of how we can continue to help our students and families.

The morning began in Lecanto at the County Community Center where Blessings rents their office and storage.  We boarded a standard issue Citrus School Bus and traveled through Homosassa and Crystal River neighborhoods. We stopped at one of Blessings major partners, Citrus County’s Community Food Bank.  The Food Bank (as it is often referred too) is home to their 7,200 sq. ft. food warehouse. The Food Bank is the largest food supplier to Blessings and over 50 other food pantries throughout Citrus County and surrounding counties.  Blessings purchases food each year from the Food Bank at significate savings then if we purchased the food direct. It is the savings that allows Blessings to better serve the near 1,400 students that are food-insecure in Citrus County.

Next, the bus traveled through the neighborhoods of Floral City and Inverness stopping at Withlacoochee Technical College, where another major partner of Blessings is based, the Citrus County Education Foundation. Executive Director Shaunda Burdette and Associate Director Susan Frampton tour us through the CCEF “teacher store”.  At this ALL FREE store, teachers may “shop” for supplies for their students and classrooms.  Blessings operates a section of the store, Blessings supplies snacks for teachers to provide to students in their classroom. Last school year CCEF provides approximately $50,000 in supplies from the CCEF Teacher’s Store.  While at CCEF Ms. Burdette and Ms. Frampton provided a lovely lunch for Blessings. This gave both CCEF and Blessings an opportunity to share about the work we are doing individually and collectively.  During lunch Blessing’s Grace Hengesbach shared the connection between CCEF and Blessings, as we are the only two organizations whose sole purpose is to meet the needs of our Citrus County students.

Next, the bus headed to the neighborhoods in Hernando, Dunnellon and Beverly Hills. Our school bus driver was so valuable to the knowledge and better understanding we learned this day. Throughout our journey, our bus driver would point out the areas our students lived and help us better understand about our student’s lives.

I want to thank Blessings outgoing Executive Director, Grace Hengesbach and incoming Executive Director, Connie Storms for all their work putting together this incredibly informative day.

To learn more about Blessings and for those wishing to volunteer or donate to Citrus County Blessings please visit the website at: www.citruseducation.org

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