Student Xzavion O’Hara, 11, makes a diving catch during the Hometown Huddle, a service event put on by the United Way of Northeast Florida and the Jacksonville Jaguars Tuesday at Woodland Acres Elementary School in Jacksonville. (Will Dickey/Florida Times-Union)

Tiffany Green grew up in Arlington and attended Woodland Acres Elementary School, where she is now principal.

She knows the neighborbood’s needs and was overjoyed when about 120 volunteers — including five Jacksonville Jaguars alumni — showed up at the school Tuesday to distribute food to local families, spruce up the campus and a nearby community center and conduct a youth football camp. Woodland Acres was the focus of the 2017 Hometown Huddle, a service event sponsored by the United Way of Northeast Florida and the Jaguars.

“This school has a special place in my heart,” Green said.

Woodland Acres is one of about 90 Duval County schools served by the Full Service Schools initiative of United Way and its partner agencies, which provides a range of services to help address non-academic barriers to success, such as hunger and family problems.

Student Milan Jagodic, 10, gives a high-five to Jaxson de Ville. About 120 volunteers — including five Jacksonville Jaguars alumni — showed up for Hometown Huddle to distribute food to local families, spruce up a nearby community center and conduct a youth football camp.

“We focus on the whole child,” Green told the volunteers, and such community support “helps us make it happen for these children every single day. … Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Hometown Huddle began almost 20 years ago as an initiative of the national United Way and the NFL. Last year the Jacksonville event moved from EverBank Field to New Town, another struggling community. This year Woodland Acres got the nod.

Joy Hervey is co-chairwoman of Arlington 20/20, a faith-based community transformation initiative. She said the event sent a message to the school and the community that “they had not been forgotten. … that we’re paying attention to them,” she said.

The Jaguars alumni, who were accompanied by team mascot Jaxson deVille and members of the Roar cheerleading squad, said they were happy to help.

Many of the team’s former players volunteer “to be part of the community,” said Todd Philcox, who was a quarterback for the Jaguars in 1996. He and the other alumni led Woodland Acres fourth-graders in a seven-station football camp. “We have fun with everything we do,” he said.

“We love to give back to the community,” said Bryan Schwartz, a Jaguars linebacker from 1995 to 1999. He noted that the Bible advises people to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you … for in its welfare you will have welfare.”

Joining the former players were volunteers from Florida Blue, GE, SNI, Am-eris Bank, City Year, Enterprise, Regency Centers and Episcopal Children’s Services.

Episcopal staff took part because helping families is part of their mission, said family advocate Whitney Johnson. At the event, she helped distribute Farm Share-provided food to local residents.

“We’re all for helping parents feed their families,” she said.

A contingent from Regency Center’s Jacksonville office also helped distribute food because one of the company’s “core values is to serve the community” in all 19 of its locations across the country, said Stephanie Parisi, assistant marketing and events manager.

“Everybody gets involved,” she said. “We’re about building strong and thriving communities.

BETH REESE CRAVEY: (904) 359-4109