‘Anybody can help’: Northwestern High gives Christmas meals to Rock Hill families in need
The hallway in front of the Northwestern High School gym was filled with a lot of love on Friday morning.
It was also filled with food.
Around 10 a.m. on Friday, some Northwestern High School staff and others in the Rock Hill community assembled 50 meals out of several-tables-worth of canned vegetables, rice, seven-pound spiral hams, rolls, mac and cheese and other items. After they were packed, those meals were then sent to families in need within Northwestern’s attendance zone — punctuating the school’s month-long effort to be an active part of the giving Christmas season.
“People want to do the right thing at the right time for those in need,” said Northwestern principal Hezekiah Massey III, who helped load and distribute the meals on Friday. “And so through (athletic director) Jimmy Duncan and connections we’ve established in the community, an idea came and we went to work, putting the muscle and the effort behind it to make it happen.”
Massey said he realizes that this year has been hard on certain families, particularly because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the economy.
“Folks are still waiting for a government stimulus check. They’re still waiting for relief from evictions. They’re still waiting for unemployment benefits to come through. So when we shut down, it was kind of another blow to our community, and those who were already living paycheck-to-paycheck — dollar-to-dollar — were hurt the most,” he said, adding, “So I think the pandemic has played a huge part in the need. It’s grown. And we just wanted to put action to that need, and do something that really makes a difference.”
The effort began four weeks ago, Duncan said, when a few Rock Hill residents who were wanting to help feed the hungry in the community approached Northwestern’s staff with this idea. Duncan and the NHS athletic department then put on a drive to collect the food and coordinated the rest of the logistics — which included working with the guidance counselor’s office to determine which families would be receiving meals.
A bulk of the food packed was contributed just last week, Duncan said.
“Out of nowhere, it just started rolling in,” said Duncan, who was helping pack and distribute the meals on Friday. “We had booster club families (contributing). Volleyball, cheer, wrestling, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer. I mean, everybody was pitching in… I don’t want to miss anybody. Every single sport we had, every single (team) has helped in some way.”
‘Trying to give back’
Trojan football coach Page Wofford, who saw many players on his team contribute to the drive and who also helped distribute the food in the afternoon, called Friday “humbling.”
“We’re trying to give back, you know — trying to give back to the people who’ve been giving back to us,” Wofford said. “The community has been so supportive of us these last few years. And we just thought this was a way just that our kids (and) their families could help out, and they came through.”
Northwestern quarterback Will Mattison, who was also present Friday, believes these acts of kindness on the local level can compound — and ultimately show that anyone can help make a difference.
“That’s one of the main things, being able to set an example for younger kids that anybody can help out in the community,” Mattison said. “You don’t have to be a pro who used to go to high school here. If you’re in high school, you can still help out by doing stuff like this.”
Packing the meals, with the help of about nine workers, took about 40 minutes on Friday morning. It was a short but bustling time when people were talking, laughing and taking pictures in awe of the amount of food the school had accrued.
“Christmas is easy for some folks, and it’s a little harder for others,” Duncan said. “And we’re hoping we can make it a little easier for some families.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
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