E4: Furnishing Hope: The Blessing Board Story

What makes Rich Garland with The Blessing Board a good neighbor? 

Have you ever wondered what happens when families secure housing after homelessness, flee domestic violence, or transition from incarceration - but have nothing to sit on, sleep on, or eat from? The Blessing Board tackles this overlooked crisis of "furniture poverty" that affects thousands across Pittsburgh.

Rich Garland, Executive Director of this Christian furniture bank, shares how they've transformed over 14,000 empty living spaces into actual homes since 2010. From their humble beginnings in a church to now operating two massive showrooms totaling 54,000 square feet, they're meeting a staggering need - receiving 500+ requests monthly while serving approximately 150 families with completely free furniture.

The most powerful moment comes when Rich shares the story of a young widow with three children who, after being overlooked twice, prayed one more time for help while sitting on her empty floor. Within days, her home was filled with furniture at no cost. "This furniture poverty can happen anywhere," Rich explains, recounting how even acquaintances from affluent neighborhoods have found themselves suddenly without basic necessities after life crises.

What makes The Blessing Board unique is its volunteer-driven approach, with 260 active community members ensuring that every donated dollar maximizes impact. Through their "Days of Blessing," families in need can personally select items with dignity rather than receiving impersonal handouts. The organization represents a beautiful intersection of practical needs and spiritual care, showing how beds, tables, and couches become vessels for demonstrating genuine love to neighbors in crisis.

Want to be part of this transformative work? Visit TheBlessingBoard.org to learn more about their "Be a Blessing" campaign where a $15 monthly donation helps provide children with beds and families with dining tables where they can gather together again. Your support ensures no one has to face an empty home during life's most challenging transitions.

To learn more about The Blessing Board go to:
https://theblessingboard.org/

The Blessing Board
412-607-0202

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a Christianfurniture bank?
One might be closer than youthink.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
rich Garland with the BlessingBoard.
Rich, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good Lila, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm well, I'm well.
Thank you so much.
We're excited to learn allabout you and your business.
Tell us about your company.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Actually, I'm the executive director.
It is what we call a furniturebank.
It's a Christian furniture bank.
It started in a church in theEast Hills of Pittsburgh and it
quickly exploded from there andgrew up to some warehousing
units that we were serving outof, and then we had a 46,000

(00:59):
square feet showroom in Oakmont,pennsylvania.
You may have heard aboutOakmont in the past week or so.
Showroom in Oakmont,pennsylvania.
You may have heard about.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Oakmont in the past week or so but we were there
until 2021, when we lost ourlease and we now have a 25,000
square foot showroom in Shaler,another suburb of Pittsburgh and
a 29,000 square foot showroomin West.
Mifflin, south of Pittsburgh,and we're serving approximately

(01:27):
150 families a month with freefurniture.
You might ask?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
well, is there really a need for?
That we get over 500 requests amonth for people that want and
need furniture.
Who do we serve?
We serve men and women comingout of incarceration.
Men and women dealing withhomelessness, mental illness,
drug addiction, women fleeingfrom domestic violence issues.

(01:54):
Since our incorporation in 2010, we have served over 14,000
families with free furniture.
Wow so how did you get into?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
this business.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Kicking and screaming .

Speaker 2 (02:08):
I was just a volunteer.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I would go pick up furniture.
I would help load people'strucks on what we call days of
blessing.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
And then I was invited to serve on the board
and then, in 2017, we separatedfrom the founder and I
volunteered to serve as theinterim executive director and
the interim became full-time.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
And so I've been doing this full-time since
January of 19.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Very nice.
What are some myths ormisconceptions in your industry?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Some myths.
This could be anywhere, anybodycan be suffering from furniture
poverty.
One story that I tell.
I live in, not a richneighborhood, but it's rather
affluent and I was one dayserving on a day of blessing and
I noticed a woman had walked inwho I knew from several years

(03:12):
ago my wife and I had been outwith them socially and I thought
she was there to serve.
And some things happened in herlife.
She got divorced and losteverything, and she was there to
be served, so this furniturepoverty can happen in any
neighborhood Some of the mostaffluent neighborhoods in and

(03:36):
around.
Pittsburgh were serving, andalso we're pretty low on the
list when you come to dealingwith people and their needs we
interview a lot of socialservice workers and they've got
a tough job.
They're on the front lines ofserving people when they're down
and furniture is way down thelist they're trying to get

(03:59):
people jobs.
They're trying to get peoplehomes.
They're trying to get peoplechild care.
They're trying to get peoplehomes, they're trying to get
people child care, they'retrying to get people food, and
as they all organize that theycan find all of that stuff, and
then all of a sudden they'resitting in an apartment, a
three-bedroom apartment, with nofurniture, sleeping on the
floor.
So the Blessing Board has theunique ability to provide

(04:22):
furniture at no cost and justdeal with the perspective that
if we go to furnish our homes,that's quite a big number you
have to spend in order tofurnish a home.
And what we're able to do isshow God's love to these people
in need by simply being able toprovide them with free furniture

(04:43):
beds couches dining room tableslamps pots pans silverware, so
we're right in that niche thatwe can fill very effectively
Excellent.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Who are your target customers and how do you attract
them?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, we have several stakeholders that we attract
the people that we serve.
They can find us word of mouthonline.
That's one stakeholder we have.
Two is our volunteers.
We have 260 active volunteersin our organization and we don't

(05:28):
serve without our volunteers.
So if you, have a particulardesire to volunteer and to serve
people, particularly in faith.
We've got the one-stop shop foryou, because on a day of
blessing we need approximatelybetween 15 and 20 volunteers to

(05:49):
serve the 10 families that arecoming in and our third
stakeholder is our donors.
We're running a budget of abouta million dollars annually now
and we're serving somewhere inthe neighborhood of 1,500 to
2,000 families a year.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
So the donor is excited and determined that
their money goes to where it ismost needed and can have the
greatest effect.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
So we have a very lean staff and we make sure that
every dollar is usedappropriately.
Excellent.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
So community outreach sounds like it's probably
pretty important to you guys asfar as being able to reach those
people that you can help.
Have you ever thought aboutdoing your own podcast?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh several times yeah .
My daughter is a licensedpsychologist and she just
started her podcast and we'veoften talked about getting a
podcast up and running, but it'sjust what's in front of me
right now is what gets handled.
So that's kind of where we are.
The idea is to make this sofinancially sustainable that we

(07:06):
can hire a professionalexecutive director a
professional director ofdevelopment, and then we can
expand into other areas.
We just recently signed amemorandum of understanding with
Grove City College that they'reworking with us to help us
develop that sustainable modelwith us to help us develop that

(07:26):
sustainable model where theirstudents are working on projects
whether it's through IT orsocial media stuff or just
working on a redemptiveleadership model in this
organization where they can getthe volunteers to be on a
regular basis as well as thefunds coming in on a consistent
basis.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Excellent.
So outside of work, what do youdo for fun?

Speaker 3 (07:52):
I work, I also work in an insurance.
I've been in insurance all mylife.
I've worked with my daughterand her agency there.
I coach high school girlssoccer.
I've been doing that, for thiswill be my 27th season of
coaching high school girlssoccer.
I have two adult daughters andtwo adult sons and four

(08:18):
granddaughters.
I have quite a lot on my plate.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, you're a family man.
I have quite a lot on my plate.
Oh yeah, you're a family man,all right, so let's switch gears
.
Can you describe a hardship orlife challenge you overcame and
how it made?

Speaker 3 (08:36):
you stronger.
What comes to mind?
Oh wow, oh wow.
Probably the biggest hit that Iever received is the death of
my mother when she was 56.
You know you go cruisingthrough life and live in a life

(08:56):
that's like Norman Rockwellpainting, and cancer deals you a
deadly blow, and I was able to,you know, fix everything up
until that point in time whenthis was one thing I couldn't
fix.
So um.
I think that was a way Godslowed me down and said you know
what I'm in charge Um you uh,place your faith in me and um

(09:19):
and.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I'll help so though it wasn't fun going through her
death at such a young age, ittaught me a lot about humility
and being able to trust in.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
God in a large way.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, may she rest in peace.
Thank you for sharing that withus.
Now, Rich, please tell ourlisteners one thing that they
should remember about theblessing board.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
One thing they should remember about the Blessing
Board.
One thing they should rememberthat God's in charge, but we are
doing a Be a Blessing campaignright now that if they sign up
to donate $15 a month on arecurring basis.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
They will get a free t-shirt.
We'll mail it to them.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
They will get a free T-shirt.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
We'll mail it to them .
And they can know that theirdonation are helping children
get a bed that don't have a bed,or a family sit around a dining
room table having dinnertogether.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Or they can know that when someone's in need, that
their money is going to theright place.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
And how can our listeners learn more about the
blessing board?

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Go to our website the blessing boardorg.
We just had it redone it's,it's a great space to be in.
There's a lot of stories thatare told there, probably the
most motivational or the biggesthinge point in my career as
executive director occurred inMarch of 2018.

(10:52):
So, when they go to thatwebsite, they'll see the stories
there, not this story, but abunch of stories about people
that we were able to meet andhelp.
In March of 18, I was in myfifth month as executive
director.
And we were serving out of asmall location in McKeesport, it

(11:13):
was crisp morning, sun wasshining and we had probably 11
families who were serving thereand my role that day was to help
load the trucks, because peoplewill come on a day of blessing,
they'll bring their trucks,they get to shop for their
furniture pick it out and weload it for them.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
And I noticed this one beautiful young lady.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
She had a Yankees cap on and a scarf around her neck
and three little children and I,being a bit of a smart aleck, I
started to engage her and Isaid so you're a Pirates fan huh
.
And she said no.
And I said, well, how'd you gethere?
And she said, well, it's atough story, but my husband and

(11:56):
I were living in St Louis andeverything was going pretty good
until he was diagnosed withcancer and he knew about the
health care here in Pittsburgh.
He wanted to get back here,everything we had just before
Thanksgiving and we were goingto make the trek and he fell ill

(12:19):
and shortly after Thanksgivinghe died 33 years old.
And she didn't know what to do,but she had all the plans made,
so she moved to this area justafter.
Christmas.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
And she heard about us in January January of 18.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Mind you, this is March of 18.
And she called us.
We didn't call her back.
Out of the 500 phone calls,we're able to serve 150.
So you see, there's a largepart that can go unmet and she
called in February and we didn'tcall her back.

(12:58):
And I'm feeling like about aninch tall at this point in time
and she's telling me this story.
I said oh, I'm so sorry.
She said no no, no, don't saythat she said.
I was sitting on the floor thispast Tuesday and I was crying.
My kids were crying.
Didn't know what to do, so Iprayed and.

(13:18):
God said call one more time.
Twenty minutes later she had anappointment and that Saturday
she had a whole house offurniture that we will give her
for free.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
What a blessing, and that's why you do what you do,
rich.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
That's why I do what I do.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Well, Rich, I really appreciate you being on the show
.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
We wish you the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
We wish you and your business the best moving forward
.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Thanks.
Thank you for listening to theGood Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNPPittsburghcom.
That's GNPPittsburghcom.
Or call 412-561-9956.