Turquoise LeJeune Parker, a 34-year-old library instructor in Durham, North Carolina, raised more than $100,000 and fed all 5,000 students at 12 different schools in the district with the assistance of the whole community.
She opened up shop in the Lakewood Elementary gym earlier this year, filling paper bags with bread, mac & cheese, beans, and other Costco staples.
“This all started with one family; one family sent me a message in 2015,” Parker told WNCT 9. “This mom said we don’t have anything at all; I don’t have anything for my kids.”
In response, she and her husband, Donald Parker, asked everyone they knew if they could help her purchase or donate food for the 25 students in her class.
Parker was able to successfully feed more students than intended after completing a “food raiser” for two years in a row.
“We were able to feed the whole grade level, then two grade levels, then the whole school, and then three schools, and it kept growing,” Parker said. “It’s truly mind-blowing at how fast this grows,” Parker said. “I just want to make sure my babies are OK.”
As a teacher of color, Parker is passionate about upholding the rights of her students, the majority of whom are of color and qualify for free or reduced lunch.
“It’s a basic human right. We’re not talking about raising money to buy people a vacation; this is food, a very, very basic thing,” Parker told CNN “We need to make sure we take care of our schools because when we take care of our schools, we’re taking care of our community.”
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