JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville woman went back to her elementary school to make sure the students went home with food and clothes.
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Glenda McCullers McClendon is technically not a staff member at Northwestern Legends Elementary, but she’s right at home.
“I cried because I got swatted in the hallway. I cried because I kissed my first boy here. I cried because this is the first place that I was able to compete in a pageant,” she said.
Most in the community know her as Rahab. She went to the school back in the 70s when it was still a high school.
“This being here at Northwestern has meant the world to me,” she said.
She’s not back just to take a trip down memory lane. She’s trying to help the young kids here, and meet their basic needs, through the Chef Harvey Foundation, which has historically found ways to feed and help others in the Jacksonville community.
“When I came with Jennifer, she said, ‘Come, bring Chef Harvey foundation here,’” she said.
Rahab joined up with The Giving Closet which is using this storage place as a place to gather pants, shirts, and shoes to give to not only students but their families.
These are things that many people may take for granted on any given day.
For the last three weeks, Rahab and her son Prince made 100’s of bags of food on Fridays and sent them home with students.
She said some of these students may not be going home as much as others.
“There’s nowhere for them to grocery shop. You’ve got to go all the way to Gateway shopping center for that Winn Dixie there or at 48th and Main Street for Harvey’s there,” she said. “Without a food bank here, there is no food here.”
Once school lets out, these kids will get a bag and then hop on the bus.
“We grabbed meat, we grabbed food from this pantry, and we made a box to feed those six children and that mom,” she said.
Rahab is making a bog impact.
“There are 323 students enrolled here at Northwestern so we’re already taking care of 33% of those children.
But she has plans for bigger.
She says the principal gave her access to this room upstairs to store what they have.
She’s hoping the community can help donate a trailer and some freezers so they can offer even more.
Either way, it’s like she is right back at school again.
“This school was a savior for me as a child. So, for me to be able to come back and help one little person who may have felt lost, tired, weary, unsure,” she said.
If that’s the case she will be here, bags, and all.
“If they need somebody to talk to,” she said.