Marion High School junior organizes Learning Center food giveaway
One of the members of the Laborers’ Local 773, Mary Smith, loads a box of produce into a truck at Pandemic Relief Food Distribution event in front of the Banterra Center. Smith says, “We’ve been doing this food drive since April and we’re working off a grant from the US government…and we’re doing it until the grant runs out.” Pandemic Relief Food Distribution event in Carbondale took place on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020 at SIU.
December 10, 2020
Ta’Quan Adams is a junior at Marion High School and on Nov. 16 he organized the delivery of a large amount of food to the Learning Center in Marion.
Adams’ church, Refugee Temple, organizes a food giveaway for the community every Monday and Adams reached out to the Learning Center.
“We have a lot of students that are barely making it food wise and he was aware of that. His church does a food giveaway and he contacted us and arranged for all the students to get a box of food,” lead teacher at the Learning Center Amy Russell said.
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The Williamson County Learning Center is a school that Adams attended, so he knew the kids and teacher that went there.
“The reason I took it upon myself to call the Learning Center is because I went to that school and I knew the kids, and I knew the position that they were in,” Adams said.
Adams arranged for all 22 kids at the Learning Center to receive a large amount of food.
“I know most of them don’t reach out and if I reached out to the school and the teachers, they were going to be willing to come out and help,” Adams said.
Two teachers helped Adams with delivering the food to the learning center.
“A lot of our parents don’t have transportation, so they couldn’t come and get it. […] Ta’Quan had enough insight to know that the parents don’t reside in Marion, so he coordinated with teachers and we brought it all up here,” Russell said.
Russell said she thinks it was a wonderful gesture for Adams to have thought about the kids in the Learning Center during these times.
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“Ta’Quan is a very special young man and he always seems to be able to think about the people around him,” Russell said.
Pastor of Refugee Temple Larry Lee said all the young people at the church help out with the giveaway and serve food.
“We have the food trucks come to the church and we pass it out at the church,” Pastor Larry Lee said.
Lee said Adams has been a member of his church since last year.
“I think it is very exciting for him to have compassion and concern for those kids at the learning center,” Lee said.
Adams also volunteers with the Ministerial Alliance in Marion where they feed the homeless and people who can not provide meals for themselves. They feed about 200-250 people a day, Adams said.
Adams is also a member of the Key Club at his school.
“Key Club is an organization where you go out for community service and you help people,” Adams said.
Outside of school Adams said he enjoys singing, swimming, going to church and helping people.
Adams said he plans on continuing giving food to the Learning Center whenever his church has the giveaways.
Staff reporter Janae Mosby can be reached at jmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbyj.
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