JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — First Coast News' 12 Who Care is underway and one nominee is a community activist who makes sure that young students in Jacksonville are fed.
Family and friends describe Angela Jackson-Seabrooks as a woman who is always looking out for other people.
“When we see a need, we try to fill a need,” Seabrooks said.
It’s a lesson Seabrooks says she learned growing up on a farm with her parents and five siblings in South Carolina. She met her husband, Diallo Sekou-Seabrooks while working in Atlanta more than 20 years ago.
“We delivered 300 meals a day to people with HIV and AIDS to make sure they had food to go along with their medication,” Seabrooks said.
The couple moved back to his hometown of Jacksonville in 2001. Angela’s location changed, but her passion for non-profits did not.
“Ever since then, I always had a job that helped someone in another aspect,” Seabrooks said.
Today, Seabrooks advocates for children’s mental health in schools as a program coordinator at United Way of Northeast Florida.
Hoping to eliminate food deserts in the River City, Angela and her husband established Urban Geoponics, a non-profit teaching the community to garden and grow fresh plants and vegetables.
“A lot of people were mainly shopping at Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, stuff like that,” Seabrooks said, “so, we started our non-profit to start doing community gardens to give people access to fresh fruit and vegetables.”
Diallo says Angela is blessed with a loving, generous character.
“We embrace the challenge of making things better so that our children and our friends’ children and our grandchildren and our nieces and our family can enjoy the city that we live in,” Diallo said.
A graduate from the historically Black Spelman College, Angela says education is top priority while raising the couple's two boys. And not just for her own children. Every year, she prepares college kits for first generation and homeless students.
“This is a major milestone for some of them to be able to go off to college,” Seabrooks said. “They’re the first ones to go off to college and to show them that we support them and that we’re proud of them, is something we wanted to instill.”
Seabrooks' friend, Twyla Prindle says she’s watched the program grow over the years.
“It started off with just one little duffle bag,” Prindle said, “and you’re [she's] putting maybe like a towel set and a comforter in there. Now, it’s grown to like luggage and everything you need in your dorm.”
For Seabrooks, the best part of contributing to the students is "seeing their faces and seeing how happy they are and surprised," she said.
Prindle says Seabrooks is a woman with a nurturing heart and a problem-solver.
“She’s always looking out for other people,” Prindle said, “so even if we had a conversation now and you were expressing, ‘Well, yeah I heard this happened.’ In her mind, she would be thinking about ‘Okay, how can we solve that?’"
Seabrooks' friends and family believe her impact on the community stretches far and wide.
“If you see somebody else struggling,” Seabrooks said, “don’t turn a blind eye to it and look the other way. Always try to give [and] if you have it to give, give.”
First Coast News’ 12 Who Care service awards ceremony is in October.