When Lucianna Grasso learned that about 90 percent of the students at the A. Quinn Jones Center were eligible for free or reduced lunch, she knew she wanted to do something to help the students and their families.
Grasso, a fourth-year family, youth and community sciences major at UF, worked with Enlace Student Organization to organize a food drive to benefit the children and families from the A. Quinn Jones Center, a K-12 school for emotionally handicapped children.
Enlace will be collecting canned goods and non-perishable items through Dec. 3 at three sites on UF’s campus.
So far, the group has collected about 50 cans and other nonperishable food items. They hope to collect at least 200 cans by Dec. 3, she said.
Peter Huber, a guidance counselor at the center said that 90 percent of the families of the students on campus are at or below the poverty level.
Many of the students are homeless or displaced, he said.
The school provides a free therapeutic and educational environment for students with emotional handicaps. The donations from the food drive will directly benefit the students and their families at the center, he said.
“It’s no secret that poverty and mental illness go hand-in-hand,” Huber said.
Gabrielle Williams, a fundraising director and a third-year health education and behavior major, said she was unaware of the fact that so many of the students at the center were in such a difficult position.
“You have people struggling to get something to eat,” she said. “It broke my heart and I wanted to do something about it.”
“Thanksgiving is coming up and some of these people don’t even have a table to sit at,” she said.
Individuals may drop off cans and other nonperishable food items at the Reitz Union Colonnade weekdays between 10:40 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. Items may also be dropped of at Norman Hall Room 186 and Norman Hall Room G315 during regular school hours.
