TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Florida A&M University students put service into action on MLK Day by restocking help shelves across Leon County.
They filled the shelves with food and hygiene items.Neighbors can pick up those items from the shelves for free.Watch the video below to hear what students say motivates them to give back.
Students restock community help shelves across Leon County for MLK Day of Service
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Students are putting service into practice.
“The work we are doing is necessary, and it’s important to continue to do it,” said FAMU student Shaniyah Ellies.
Filled with food and supplies, seventeen help shelves across Leon County are placed in neighborhoods where anyone can come and get what they need.
Similar to Little Free Libraries that offer books, help shelves provide free access to non-perishable food, fresh fruit, and basic hygiene items for anyone who needs a little extra support.
For 67 years, Patricia Williams has lived in one of those neighborhoods, the Bond Community, a place she says is in need of more resources.
“You have a whole lot of homeless people in the neighborhood. You have grandmothers who trying to raise their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and we need more support for the Bond community,” Williams said.
At Monday’s MLK Day of Service, FAMU students and students from the School of Arts and Sciences, along with their families, collected food and toiletries to restock many of those help shelves, including one located at Prayer Temple on Saxton Street.
Before the shelves were even fully stocked, neighbors began arriving to gather what they needed, and FAMU students say it was powerful to see the community respond.
“It just really warms my heart. It touches me to even know that people are coming here and getting the resources we leave for them, even if they don’t know who it’s from,” said FAMU student Laila Jones.
“Community is an important aspect of evolvement of success and of pride, so we are here to give back and hope to further nurture our communities,” Ellies said.
For Williams, this day of service is about more than food or supplies. She says it is about continuing the work and the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in her own neighborhood.
“He fought for everybody, and that’s what we got to learn to do. We are one person in God eyes, and we got to start treating each other like that,” Williams said.
Williams says she hopes more people will get out and serve, not just on MLK Day.
In Southwest Tallahassee, I am neighborhood reporter Lentheus Chaney.
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