JONESBORO — About 60 local families will have a happier Thanksgiving this year after a food giveaway event at Jonesboro Middle School.
The school’s Thanksgiving Basket Giveaway on Thursday, Nov. 16 was a partnership between the school and NFL player Darius Slayton’s Left Hand Right Hand Foundation.
This is the second year of the giveaway at Jonesboro Middle. It started as a turkey drive by student club Call to Manhood but grew into providing full meals to families.
The entire school is involved as competitions are held to see which home room can donate the most canned food.
“It’s a blessing to be able to provide,” Jonesboro Middle Principal Kimberlee Barnett said. “Oftentimes schools are reaching out looking for partners to come in to help us. We have a pretty significant homeless population in our school community, and for us to be able to give back to show that when you are a part of the Jonesboro school community, we care.”
Barnett said student involvement in this giveaway and other community service projects is key for them to have community pride and to take initiative in addressing issues in the community.
“When they see things that they don’t like or they see things that they believe are barriers to being successful that they look to identify what can be done to remove those barriers and for them to know that they are part of the solution,” Barnett said. “I think it brings some confidence. It helps them to understand that we really are looking to them to be successful in the future, and we’re looking to them to be the problem solvers. They are the ones who are going to be responsible for their community moving forward and I believe that this truly helps them own that responsibility.”
The Jonesboro event was one of two events the Left Hand Right Hand Foundation partnered with in the metro Atlanta area in…
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