Tupelo based insurance agency to feed 1,000 families ahead of Christmas

Bobby Brock Insurance will distribute food boxes December 17th at the Tupelo Furniture Market

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A local insurance agency wants to make Christmas brighter for a thousand families.

When Justin Brock heard about the company-wide layoffs at United Furniture Industries, he wanted to do something to make a difference.

“Seeing how some partners of ours in another state had done something similar, we decided we wanted to feed 4,000 people, or a thousand families, a Christmas meal,” Brock said.

Justin Brock, president of Bobby Brock Insurance, with the help of his associates and others in the community, has organized a Christmas dinner giveaway for December 17, at the Tupelo Furniture Market.

“First you had to find somewhere where you could house pallets of food while you put together boxes.  Our office is nice, but we don’t have that type of facility, thankfully Furniture Market had space available, then we had to say, ‘where will we get this food from?’ We found a grocery store partner called Mitchell’s in Guntown, to get us at-cost groceries. We’re looking at a box of a lot of non-perishables, but a gift certificate of $25 at least for turkey, can be used for other things as well at multiple grocery stores,” he said.

Justin Brock knows it’s a lot of work organizing the food distribution. He said all employees will be helping out, along with volunteers. But he also knows it’s one way to help members of the community going through tough times during the Christmas season.

“It’s important because we spend a lot of money on marketing, we partner with people on marketing and this is a way I feel we can take some of that budget and back to the community, anytime you can take some money you will probably spend anyway on your business, to be honest, it’s a little selfish of us, we enjoy doing it and seeing faces of people we can make that individual difference,” Brock said.

The food giveaway will start at 10 a.m. on December 17. People are encouraged to get there early to get a place in line.

That food giveaway will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

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