For the past six years, students at Cleveland Elementary have been lucky enough to have a relationship with an organization called Joshua’s Gift, which is essentially a food pantry that has supplied backpacks of food to students in need throughout Fayette County.  Unfortunately, the organization recently lost some significant donors and the funding was no longer there to continue this program with the students, according to a school spokesperson.

“We have seen firsthand how these backpacks have benefited our students over the years and were hoping to be able to continue this effort ourselves,” she stated.

With that in mind, the school hosted a food drive the week of Feb. 22-26 in hopes of collecting enough items to send these students home with food for the remainder of the school year. School officials reported that the response was overwhelming and exceeded the goal.

Pictured are students Gavino Padilla, Marlena Padilla, Anthony Chirombo, Alejandro Padilla, Justice Harris and King Thompson.