Locals gather together to feed out-of-school youth
Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered that all public schools in the state will remained closed until Wednesday, April 15 in response to the COVD-19 (novel coronavirus) crisis.
Rather than an extended Spring Break, most of Jefferson County's students are attending virtual classrooms from their homes.
This means most of Jefferson County's students are at home, and this poses a complex problem for families with constrained incomes.
While the students are at school, Jefferson Somerset provides a free breakfast and lunch on the campus to students. Jefferson Somerset, as of Monday, March 23, initiated a meal program to continue feeding its students a regular breakfast and lunch, but a local group of community members chose to also take steps in ensuring Jefferson County's youth are fed.
On Tuesday, March 24, the Daughters of Deborah and other locals gathered at the corner of Chestnut and Cherry Street in order to give away freshly cooked lunch to any student who walked up.
The volunteers had packaged little brown to-go bags for the youth to take home with them, and organized the event as a “Grab and Go” lunch program.
Reportedly, the group had cooked, prepared and packaged over 100 lunches for local kids.
“We're a group of God's children, coming together to give back in faith,” said YuLonda Cooper, one of the individuals who had volunteered her time to make this event possible.
“This is from the Jefferson County community, giving lunches to the Jefferson County kids,” added Dione Maxwell.
According to Maxwell, the idea to do this for the local kids came about when several women sat together around a table to decide what they could do to benefit the children of the community.
The women decided that the most immediate way to aid the local community of young adults and youth would be to offer free lunch to any student who needed it.
From their booth on the corner of Chestnut and Cherry Streets, the volunteers played gospel music and cooked hot dogs; the students' lunches were hot dogs, chips, cookies and a drink.
“We had a vision and we all got together and brought our vision forth,” added Maxwell.
For more about the Daughters of Deborah group and its missions, contact Dione Maxwell at (850) 567-1977 or Samantha Francis-Darity at (850) 491-7174.