Guidance counselor working to make his school’s food pantry a model for other schools to fight childhood hunger

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The food pantry at George Washington Carver Elementary School is nearly stocked thanks to donations from across the country.

The help came after the school was featured on the national stage highlighting how teachers are stepping up to feed hungry students.

When Action News Jax showed up G.W. Carver Elementary Thursday, it wasn’t long before someone came up to Anthony Winters wanting to help donate more food to the school’s pantry.

“I’ve got people reaching out to me on Facebook, I have about 100 emails in my inbox,” said Winters.

The guidance counselor said he’s even gotten messages from people in other states and the boxes of food keep showing up.

“I think it’s a really, really awesome response that we’re getting but I think the really important thing is that this isn’t just a Jacksonville problem,” said Winters.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, almost 24 million adults in the U.S. reported their families sometimes, or often, didn’t have enough to eat in the last seven days.

Causing many kids to show up hungry to school and looking to their teachers for help.

Winters said he’s teaming up with local organizations to try to set up food pantries like the one at G.W. Carver, in more schools.

“And then once I start making it happen at other schools I’m going to other counties and make it happen in those counties and then I’m going to start going state by state and heck if I can even do it let’s start going country by country and start doing it there,” said Winters.

It’s a tall order, but Winters said he’s up for the task.

“Man on a mission,” he said.

According to Winters, he’s meeting with the Giving Closet Project to start organizing and giving their school’s pantry a makeover hoping to become a model for other schools to follow.

Cox Media Group