Liam Billups, 7, joined his sisters and parents in carefully opening a reusable food bag to fill with mac and cheese, cereal, green beans, and boxes of pasta — as he helped put together one of 500 donations meant to carry forward Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy of service and unity.
That was the scene at Wexler-Grant School Monday as over 100 New Haveners joined to celebrate the decades-long tradition of the MLK Day of Service hosted by the Theta Epsilon Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
The annual event has grown significantly, with 30 organizations joining forces Monday, up from 25 last year. Local churches also participated to help pack 500 food bags that were delivered to Women of the Village, a local nonprofit food pantry.
The event’s donors included dozens of sorority and fraternity chapters who were all tasked with selecting and bringing at least 500 units of a non-perishable food. Each church brought at least 50 boxes of oatmeal to make sure each food bag would be filled to the brim with food items to give to New Haveners in need.
Since 2017, the food drive and day of service has supported Women of the Village to “help others as they help the community,” explained the AKA’s MLK Day of Service chairman, Sondi Jackson.
Greater New Haven NAACP President Dori Dumas added that Women of the Village sit right in the heart of the Dixwell community, at 26 Charles St. “They’re a big deal,” she said. “They don’t turn anyone away.”
Now, thanks to the MLK Day of Service, Women of the Village increased the impact of its food distribution from helping around 100 people or families to at least 500 after Monday’s donation.
Theta Epsilon Omega President Adrienne Dean Parkmond noted that the annual day of service is “about our community, not just one organization.”
Jasmine Billups, Liam’s mother and a member of the Iota Chi Sigma chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated, volunteered Monday for the second year in a row. This year, she brought her entire family along with her to experience the importance of service and community.
Her daughters Lilianna, 12, and Leilani, 9, joined Liam and Jasmine’s husband Michael Billups, Jr. in each filling up a reusable grocery bag with a dozen nonperishables Monday.
After the morning’s program, community members stepped out into Wexler’s hallway to collect a food bag and then walked into the cafeteria to start making rounds to each organization’s food table to collect around 20 items for each bag. After two laps around the cafeteria to fill two different bags, Lilianna said she felt moved by giving to the less fortunate. Her sister Leilani said it felt good to help her community.
Many volunteers brought their families along to support the effort of getting food in the hands of everyone in the city. Jasmine added that she didn’t want MLK’s birthday celebration to just be a day off from school for her children. Instead, she wanted it to be a reminder of the late civil rights leader’s impact and the message of being proud of who you are. “With everything going on around us, I want them to understand we can still work and come together,” she concluded.
As volunteers packed food bags, WYBC’s music kept everyone motivated and reinforcing the morning message of hope and perseverance.
As the community filled up bags with food, volunteers loaded the bags into pickup trucks, cars, and vans to deliver around the corner to Women of the Village.
Once Alexander Jones, a member of the Epsilon Iota Iota Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, filled his trunk and backseats with dozens of bags, he headed off to deliver them before starting all over again.
Theta Epsilon Omega Chapter’s North Atlantic Regional Director Elicia Pegues Spearman celebrated not just the success of Monday’s event but also the growing generations of New Haven youth that join each year’s day of service with their families or for high school community service hours. “They’re growing up seeing us intentionally connect with organizations doing the work,” she said about the many young people that helped make Monday’s event happen.
Read the article here: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2026/01/20/mlk-day-food-drive-puts-community-service-first/