ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – When one first grade teacher in Orange County saw how hungry her kids were during the pandemic, she decided to take action. 

What You Need To Know

Nisha Phillip-Malahoo hosted a good ol’ fashioned pizza party for her first grade class right before spring break. 

Ms. Malahoo, as her students call her, teaches at Pinewood Elementary School—a Title 1 school.

She says there was already a lot of need here, which the pandemic has multiplied. 

“Many parents have lost their jobs, they’re down to a single income household, and our kids are suffering,” she said. 

So she partnered with nonprofit Above and Beyond for Change to turn this class pizza party into a neighborhood meal. 

“We’re expecting at least 60 families, so that’s really, really excellent,” Above and Beyond for Change founder Michelle Sanchez said. 

“Ms. Malahoo she’s an amazing teacher for bringing us all together as a community, definitely appreciate it,” said Antawnia Brooks, who has a child in Malahoo's class. 

This isn’t the first time Malahoo has put on an event like this to feed her students and their families. But she says seeing how hard the pandemic has made just getting a decent meal, she wanted to do even more. 

“I teach online and a lot of times I’d come back from after lunch and ask the kids, ‘what did you have for lunch? Let’s share!’ And sometimes they’d say, ‘oh I didn’t have anything. I didn’t eat yet.’ And that literally broke my heart, because how can I teach you if I know you’re hungry?” Malahoo said. 

So this time Malahoo wanted to make sure her kids would have nutritious food for the week they’d be out of school during spring break. 

“We’re handing out 30 pound boxes of fresh food. It is my hope that during the spring break when kids are out of school, this will act as their breakfast and lunch because they’re not going to be getting that when they’re out of school,” she said. 

“It means so much as a parent that I don’t have to worry about where my child’s meal is going to come from next,” Brooks said. 

Malahoo says she hopes this shows people that you don’t have to be a CEO or politician to do some good. You just have to care. 

“We are not too small to make change…if we all just come together and just support each other, we can do so much more together,” she said. 

But we can’t end this story about Malahoo without giving everyone, big and small, a homework assignment. 

“Look at who’s in your community…can we feed the people in our community?" Malahoo said. 

Malahoo also involved the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in this food giveaway to help strengthen the community connection with law enforcement. 

If you want to support what she and Above and Beyond for Change are doing, you can do so by using one of these links: