Supporting those in need
Leader photos by T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT
Grambling City Councilwoman Yanise Days (right) passes food into the waiting arms of a Grambling resident Thursday morning at the Legends Square parking lot. The Grambling Economic Corporation distributed lunches to senior and disabled residents of Grambling.
Pictured are Grambling Councilwoman G. Denise Dupree (left) and Mayor Ed Jones talking to residents waiting to pick up food.
Pictured is Grambling Police Chief Tommy Clark talking to a passenger in a waiting vehicle.
GRAMBLING — Even in times of social distancing, it’s sometimes important to lend a helping hand.
And that’s what the Grambling Economic Corporation did Thursday as it handed out free lunches to senior and disabled residents of Grambling.
Cars lined up in the Legends Square parking lot and were handed meals through vehicle windows by Grambling Mayor Ed Jones, Grambling city council members and city workers.
Funding from the project came from the Grambling Economic Corporation and Hampton Roads Ventures, LCC, which helped find financing for Grambling’s Legend Square, which was financed in part by $10 million of federal New Markets Tax Credit allocation that Hampton Roads Ventures helped secure.
“Hampton Roads Ventures, LCC, which had provided tax credits for the Legends Square Market, helped us with funding this food today and we’re grateful for that,” Jones said. “Grambling’s Economic Corporation is a 501 c3 (a corporation, trust, unincorporated association, or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax) and is not connected to the city,” Jones said. “But Hampton Roads Ventures helped us with government funding to be able to do this. When they found out about the virus here in Lincoln Parish and Grambling, they sent us money so we could do this today”
Jones said it won’t be a one-time-only venture. Free lunches will be handed out again next Thursday.
“We’re targeting senior citizens and citizens who have disabilities,” Jones said. “That’s who it’s for. We had a list of people that fit those categories and we called them to let them know this was going on. And we’ll do it again next week for another group of people that we didn’t get (Thursday).”
