DURHAM, N.C. — For the past eight years, a Durham Public Schools teacher has been making sure students don’t go hungry. The twice-yearly Bull City FOODraiser just wrapped up for spring break, helping to feed thousands of kids several Durham elementary schools.

What You Need To Know

Turquoise Parker recently wrapped up her biannual Bull City FOODraiser benefiting Durham students

Parker started the initiative in 2015 in order to help feed students during extended breaks from school

This spring’s event helped feed about 5,000 students across almost 12 Durham elementary schools

From volunteers to donations to time spent, there’s a lot of magic that goes into making the biannual Bull City FOODraiser a success.

“I know each bag weighs 14 pounds. I can tell you that. We are moving, moving, moving,” said Turquoise Parker, the founder of Bull City FOODraiser. “As this started to grow, I wasn't expecting it to be what it is. I underestimated the amount of people that we would need to help bring this thing to life.”

Parker, who is a media coordinator at Lakewood Elementary School in Durham, never thought she’d be leading an initiative like this.

“I started this in 2015. I wasn't starting anything. I was just trying to help one of the families in my classroom. I wasn't trying to start this. I just was trying to make sure one of the families in my class had food for Christmas break, because that's what the mom asked for,” Parker said.

Now, every year for winter and spring break, she helps feed students across almost 12 Durham schools.

“Oh, my gosh. I started trying with all of this with five bags. And we're talking about today, we're going to make 2,500 bags. That's crazy,” Parker said.

This spring the bags have canned goods, bread, cereal, snack bars, applesauce pouches, peanut butter and more. While she never thought she’d be spearheading something like this, she says it’s been very special to see how generous this community is.

“It's a blessing. It's a beautiful blessing. I'm grateful to so many people because it's not me. I'm not buying any of this food. This is all the generosity of a lot of hearts, a lot of minds and a lot of hands,” Parker said.

Parker says one of her ultimate goals is to feed every single student in Durham for spring and winter breaks. Even though they just distributed spring break food bags, they will start fundraising for winter break food bags very soon.

People interested in learning more about the Bull City FOODraiser can email Parker at mrsturquoiseparker@gmail.com.