At Campbell High School on Thursday mornings, the tables begin to fill.
Applesauce. Crackers. Soup. Snacks. Bottled water. Brightly colored drawstring bags.
And around those tables, students get to work.
They sort. They pack. They laugh. They move from one stack of food to another, filling bags that will leave the classroom on Friday and go home with fellow Campbell students for the weekend.
They don’t know whose bags they’re packing.
That’s part of the point.
Somewhere in the same hallways they walk each day is another student who may leave school Friday afternoon unsure of what there will be to eat before Monday morning. The students doing the packing don’t need a name or recognition.
They simply know someone needs their help.
And in many ways, that small act of one Campbell student caring for another tells the story of Smyrna Unites.
The idea began not with a new organization, but with two existing ones — and a question.
Patty Brubaker, president of Jonquil City Kiwanis, learned through one of Campbell High School Principal Paul Gilihan’s quarterly community reports that Campbell had one of the highest numbers of students in Cobb County experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. At the same time, Geisa Salati, president of the Rotary Club of Smyrna, had seen through Rotary’s work with Green Acres Elementary School and Backpack Buddies how meaningful weekend food assistance could be.
Could something similar be done at Campbell?
The first answer wasn’t encouraging.
Backpack Buddies was already facing overwhelming demand and did not have the capacity to add Campbell’s students. But instead of accepting, “There isn’t enough,” Patty and Geisa asked a different question:
What can we do together?
That question became Smyrna Unites.
Jonquil City Kiwanis and the Rotary Club of Smyrna joined forces, then invited others to the table: the Lions Club, Optimist Club, Support Smyrna, the Tillman House at Smyrna First United Methodist Church, Campbell High School and other community partners.
No one organization had to carry the whole load.
One group might provide funding. Another could organize a food drive. A business could sponsor a week. A church could provide storage. Campbell staff could identify students who needed help and make sure the bags reached them discreetly.
Together, those pieces could become something dependable.
And dependable matters.
What began as an effort to help roughly 45 to 50 students grew as the need became clearer. Smyrna Unites eventually reached the point of preparing about 125 bags each week — more than 500 meals and snacks for students to take home over the weekend.
By Thursday, the food is ready to be packed.
That’s where Campbell’s Transition Program students came in.
At first, they were simply helping fill the bags. But Patty noticed something else happening around those tables.
“I saw their excitement. I saw their pride,” she said. “I saw how much it meant to them to know that someone else needed their help.”
That realization changed the project.
The students weren’t just completing a task. They were serving. They were contributing.
They were needed.
And Patty began to see that Smyrna Unites had two missions.
One was helping Campbell students who needed food. The other was giving another group of Campbell students the chance to lead, serve and discover how much they had to offer.
That idea grew into the Smyrna Spartans Aktion Club, a Kiwanis-sponsored service and leadership club created for Campbell’s Transition Program students. Kiwanis International approved what local organizers understand to be its first Aktion Club operating at the high-school level.
Traditionally, Aktion Clubs serve adults with disabilities in community settings. Campbell’s Transition Program serves young adults generally ages 18 to 22 who are preparing for life beyond high school — making it a natural place to try something new.
Packing bags is only one part of the experience.
Students can hold offices, run meetings, make decisions and plan projects. The hope is that they build confidence, independence, friendships and a sense of belonging that extends beyond Campbell.
And there is something beautifully full-circle about the work.
The students packing the bags may never know who receives them. The students receiving them may never know who packed them.
There is no applause built into the exchange.
Just one student helping another.
For Geisa, that quiet kind of service is exactly what makes Smyrna Unites so meaningful.
“It isn’t about Rotary, Kiwanis or any one organization receiving recognition,” she said. “It’s about people throughout Smyrna setting aside the names of the organizations on our shirts and coming together for the students in our community.”
That spirit is also what organizers hope will sustain the program. Keeping it going week after week will take donations, partnerships and people willing to keep showing up.
The point is not the size of the contribution. It’s that every contribution ends in the same place: with a Campbell student having something to eat over the weekend.
And if Patty and Geisa have their way, Smyrna Unites won’t stop there.
Their larger hope is that it becomes a framework for how Smyrna responds when a real need surfaces — schools, businesses, churches, civic organizations and neighbors working together without worrying about who gets the credit.
For Geisa, success is simple.
“It’s knowing that a student was cared for because our community came together and decided that they mattered.”
And maybe that is the most fitting message for a season centered on gratitude.
Gratitude is not only about recognizing what we have.
Sometimes it looks like noticing what someone else needs.
Sometimes it looks like a cart full of food, a brightly colored bag and a room full of students willing to pack it.
And sometimes it looks like an entire community deciding, together:
That’s what Smyrna does.
We take care of each other.
Be Part of Smyrna Unites
Want to help? Smyrna Unites welcomes food donations, financial contributions and community partnerships to support weekend meals for Campbell High School students. Checks should be made payable to Tillman House – A Ministry of Smyrna First UMC, with Student Essentials Fund on the memo line. To contribute or get involved, email smyrnaunites@gmail.com or follow @smyrnaunites on Instagram.