Roxbury chapel's food, toy drive recovers after storm threw plans awry

ROXBURY - Roxbury pastor Roy Owens said Friday's storm nearly derailed his church's plans to give out food and toys on Christmas Eve. 

But by Christmas Eve, Blue Hill Avenue was lined with cars dropping off donations, thanks to what Owens calls a Christmas miracle. 

WBZ-TV first met Owens on Friday night. 

The storm had just made its way through, but the impacts were still unfolding. Owens leads the Walthall Chapel in Roxbury and helps deliver food to families in need every Saturday. He said this week was set to be a big delivery given the timing of the holiday weekend. 

But come Friday, the food bank they partnered with was forced to close early due to the weather. Owens said there was an issue getting donated toys as well. 

"We have a couple hundred people who are not going to receive anything for Christmas," Owens said on Friday. 

Then, the pastor reached out to WBZ-TV and asked for help. After WBZ-TV's Juli McDonald filed a report that first aired at 8 p.m. that night, the newsroom phones started ringing with viewers asking how they could help. 

"As soon as they went on the air, thank god, people began to respond," said Owens when we caught up with him again on Saturday. 

Owens said they gathered enough toys to help kids in the neighborhood. The food bank opened just for them to be able to pick up hundreds of bags of groceries to pass out to people to make Christmas dinners. 

A Miracle on Blue Hill Avenue.

"I just thank God and the people for coming out."