Albemarle Co. students walking miles to feed the hungry Food drive donations (Source: WVIR) By Rachel Hirschheimer | December 15, 2020 at 10:21 AM EST - Updated December 15 at 10:21 AM
ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Students from Jackson P. Burley Middle School and Leslie H. Walton Middle School are walking miles to help those who are struggling with food insecurity, one canned good at a time.
“We’re walking miles with smiles because we’re using our feet to help others eat,” Burley Middle School Coach Harold Boyd said.
For two years, Burley Middle School has collected canned goods at basketball games. But since the coronavirus pandemic put sports on hold, the school immediately had to switch gears.
Decades after Jackson P. Burley High School shut its doors, the schoolâs alumni continue to tell their stories to keep the memory of the once all-Black high school alive, and they want to work with students at the school, which became Jackson P. Burley Middle School in 1974, in that effort.
âI wish the history of this school would be taught to students in a class, so the kids would understand what we went through, what our parents went through and show them the difference between what it is then and what it is now,â said Donald Byers, who graduated in 1959. âThey have great opportunities now â opportunities we didnât have â and they need to make sure that they take advantage of those opportunities.â