Feeding the children in the wake the storm

ALBANY — Although school had been cancelled in the wake of Sunday’s devastating tornado, the cafeteria at Albany’s Turner Elementary School was full of excitement Tuesday morning as dozens of Dougherty County teachers, principals and students worked to prepare meals for their coworkers and classmates impacted by the storm that tore through the Albany area Sunday night.

Lines of volunteers from four different schools, working elbow to elbow at lunchroom tables, made peanut butter and jelly, ham, and turkey sandwiches to fill food bags for students in neighborhoods that remained without power.

“Today we are coming together as a school system,” said Tuner Elementary School principal Deborah Jones. “Four schools — Turner Elementary, Radium Elementary, International Studies and Lake Park — have come together today to help the community, because we know that the community is made up of our children, and we want to make sure that they are being fed.”

The hundreds of bag lunches that were prepared, which included a sandwich, chips, snack and water, were taken by volunteer teachers and faculty to impacted neighborhoods and distributed to individuals in need. Jones and fellow principal Bruce Bowles, of Radium Springs Elementary School, said that many residents and their families who were affected by the storm either did not or could not leave their property.

“The biggest thing is when you’re dealing with communities without power, a lot of the stuff that they have bought has gone bad. They can’t cook, and it’s hard to get from one place to another because of the trees down and everything,” said Bowles. “So it helps if we bring them meals that they can eat and at least make sure they have a good lunch.”

Jones said the impetus of the program, which fell together organically and was not a system-driven initiative, came after she and Bowles joined fellow principal Zeda George of International Studies and toured sections of the community that had been ravaged by the weekend twister.

Jones said they encountered multiple families who were without power and proper food supplies, and the group immediately decided feeding those families, especially the children, needed to be a top priority.

“I always say that when God is a part of it, and your heart is in it, the plan just comes together,” said Jones. “We met yesterday out at the trailer parks, and we walked the units. After seeing their need, we just started talking about ‘How can we help them?’ And I said, ‘Let’s make it happen. Let’s do sandwiches.’”

Jones said she reached out to her staff, and Bowles reached out to Bill Turoski of SB&T, which is a partner in excellence with the school, and things came together quickly.

“They brought items, and our teachers brought items (bought with money from their own pockets) to help make this possible and make it work,” Jones said. “We are volunteers bringing food.”

Turoski said SB&T, which had been looking for ways to be of service following the storm, supplied materials for roughly 150 bagged lunches and plans to provide even more resources in the coming days.

“We know there’s agencies that are out there helping with kind of general needs, but what we want to do is to use the common phrase ‘boots on the ground.’ We want to see what the immediate needs are,” Turoski said. “We want to make sure folks are being fed, have a shelter over their head.

“This is part of what we do. We don’t do it because we have to do it. We do it because we want to do it. It’s our community. These are our customers and our neighbors.”

Teachers, faculty and students, who had extra time after the school system cancelled school for the day, expressed similar motivation, saying they wanted to do their part and show their support for the community.

“Being a teacher, your biggest part in life is to watch the kids and nurture them,” said Lake Park Elementary School teacher Jordyn Cox. “They will always hold a special place in your heart. So when something like this, this devastation, comes, you need to be there with them. You need to be there to protect them.

“They look up to you, so the least you can do when a storm comes is you need to be there for them.”

For organizers, seeing everyone coming together to support each other, and the community as a whole, left them with a tremendous feeling of pride.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Jones. “It says that we understand. We understand the whole community, not just the school. We’re here to serve the whole community. We understand that schools can’t function without functioning homes, and we want to make sure that the homes are functioning.”

Bowles agreed, saying it “feels good” to see the support and teamwork toward a good cause.

“There’s a lot of support in this community to help each other, and it’s great to see people come together from all different schools for one cause,” he said. “It says a lot for the Dougherty County School System.”

Jones said the school group is going to continue providing lunches as long as food is needed, even if schools open again before victims have power.

“We’ve got surplus items so that we can continue this effort throughout the week,” she said. “It won’t be a one-day thing. We’ll do this every day until they get power back on and can handle things on their own.”

In addition to the lunches being provided by the school system group, Albany City Commissioner B.J. Fletcher is also getting involved and providing hot meals to area families.

“B.J. jumped on board as well to help with the hot meals, so she’ll be coming in with the dinner and making sure they’ve got hot meals as well,” said Jones.