Students, faculty and staff of the Colleges of Public Service and Education and Human Development at Jackson State University assembled in the Blackburn Middle School cafeteria Thursday, Nov. 21 to pack boxes with all the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner to give to families in need.
The Dean’s Office and the three schools in the College of Public Service – Health Sciences, Policy and Planning, and Social Work – collected non-perishable food and monetary donations. 25 turkeys were also donated from the Mississippi Faith Based Coalition for Community.
“We all came together and discussed how we can do a Thanksgiving drive for our lab school on JSU’s campus – the Blackburn school,” said Dr. Ricardo A. Brown, dean of the College of Public Service. “And since we have health sciences, we wanted to get healthy foods to give to the needy families of the Blackburn school.”
According to Blackburn principal Justin Green, Recipients of the food boxes were selected from a drawing that was held at the school.
On Friday, Nov. 22, there were a total of 25 boxes that were prepared and presented to the parents of the students who names were drawn.
In addition to the food collected, the College of Public Service and the College of Education and Human Development raised over $1,600 that was donated to Blackburn Middle School.
Green said that the financial support would go toward buying students’ backpacks, uniforms, and other needs.