Nelda Gibbs, cafeteria manager for Mathews County Public Schools, and 21-year-old cafeteria employee Julia Campbell have developed a special relationship over the past couple of years. That relationship has led Nelda to hold a barbecue fundraiser to raise $5,000 to help Julia through a tough time financially.

The fundraiser will be held from 5-7 p.m. next Thursday, May 31, at Mathews High School. The menu is pulled pork or barbecued chicken, cole law, baked beans, homemade desserts, tea and lemonade. Tickets are $10 and will be sold at the door.

“It’s all homemade, and we’ll have plenty,” Nelda said.

Nelda and Julia met when Julia was a high school student working in the kitchen at MHS through the school’s Employment for Everyone program. Something about her “really pulled at my heart,” Nelda said.

Usually, EFE students who work during high school “sort of disappear” after graduation and no one hears from them again, said Nelda....