Letter from a Grant Recipient in Appalachia
Posted by Amy Zganjar on Monday, January 10, 2011
One of the highlights of my role here at Share Our Strength is hearing from our grant recipients about how the money we’re raising is making an impact in their organizations and communities.
At the end of 2010, I received the following letter from Sheldon, who runs Of One Accord Ministry in East Tennessee – an organization that has received funding from Share Our Strength. I’ll let Sheldon’s message speak for itself:
Amy –
I wanted to write especially thanking Share our Strength for your donations. In rural Appalachia communities, without outside help, agencies and organizations like ours could never complete our missions. We have struggled so much this year due to the economy and your help really made a big difference for us.
I’ve never been able to meet you personally, but I thought I might give you some glimpses of people we serve so you will understand how very important your help has been to us. Maybe over the holidays, you will have a better appreciation for the work you do.
Of One Accord serves two low income counties in Upper East Tennessee, Hawkins and Hancock. Unlike coal-mining poverty communities, our poverty stems primarily from this regions being a farming community 30 years ago. Farm land here offers little farmable land which means these folks barely eeked out a living during more productive years. Now on Social Security, most retirees are trapped on minimal $500 a month social security payments.
Hancock County, for instance that we serve is the lowest income county in Tennessee and the 27th lowest in the nation. Hancock is isolated by the beautiful Appalachian mountains which surround the county. If we measure poverty, most people think in terms of Harland County Ky, the focal point of the Appalachia’s. While it is impoverished, Hancock County has lower income, higher poverty, and higher unemployment.
Even though the average income is $23,000 for the county, those are still not the folks we serve. Our average clients are in the $600 a mo category. While we hear those figures, we can’t imagine how $600 a mo (if that’s all you got) would change your life.
Sneedville is only one town in the county, with few government services most of us take for granted. If you have a business downtown, you have to get a post office box for your mail as there is no downtown mail service. Hancock is not only the lowest county in income but highest in health problems, cancer, diabetes and drug problems.
I was in Sneedville some time ago and a lady was in our thrift store which holds our food pantry. She was getting a monthly food box and had it in a little red Western Flyer wagon. I didn’t think much about it, since in my mind, I thought maybe she has just come from a neighborhood behind the store a couple of blocks away.
But as I was preparing to leave and drive the hour to get back home, I overheard the lady at the store say, “Weren’t you afraid to pull that wagon in on busy Hwy 31?” Her answer was, “Without your help my children wouldn’t have anything to eat tonight”.
Immediately, my mind reflected on the drive into town. Hwy 31 has no shoulders. It’s straight up the mountain on one side and down to the river on the other. It rolls and if others drive a little faster than normal, you can easily top a hill and be on someone walking without notice.
I had my son with me and the ministry van so we loaded up the lady and her wagon and took her home. She had pulled that wagon four and a half miles to get that box of food. When we neared her tiny mobile home, there was an old car in the yard, the hood was up and rusted motor pieces laying all around. That car would never run again.
We just went ahead and helped carry things inside. Opening the cupboards, there wasn’t a can of green bean or corn anywhere. The refrigerator yielded the same results, not a gallon of milk. It was empty. Needless to say, we got this lady more food.
Your help to us fills these little red wagons and insures in an area of more pronounced needs, there is some place they can go so they don’t go to bed hungry.
These are the stories of people we serve with food, with medical help, we deliver hot meals too locally, or summer meals in the summer time. Last year, through help of 400 volunteers and great organizations like yours, Of One Accord served 80,000 people. That’s a lot for a small rural community.
We can tell you stories all day, but I’m hoping to draw a visual picture to see how very much difference your help makes. I had been in Sneedville this summer on a blistering 97 degree July day. I passed an old mobile home about noon, and the family was outside at a table eating lunch, children and all. Then it dawned on me. They were outside because it was cooler outside than inside. On $500 a month or less, people are living without.
Yes there are children that don’t eat between our the meals we deliver. There are elderly and disabled people who make decisions every day to give up food for medicine, doctors bills, car repairs, rent and utilities.
You provide us the ability to help families, seniors, and children like these. You really are making a difference. It really does matter. As long as you are there, we will feel safer for those we serve. I pray you are blessed in all you do.
Many Blessings,
Sheldon Livesay-Director
Of One Accord Ministry
I hope you’ll commit to helping more people like Sheldon by becoming involved with our campaign this year. The first step is to sign the No Kid Hungry Pledge.
January 10, 2011 | 2 comment(s) | Tags: grantees, no kid hungry
Comments
2 reader comments so far.
I spent my kindergarden years in a town much like Sheldon describes. We had full-day kindergarden, a hot lunch at the church, and a milk break in the afternoon. Many of my classmates were farm kids...and some of them that lunch and that milk because there wasn't much--sometimes any--at home.
Their families' farms were failing and I had my first lesson in food injustice: how can the kids of the farmers who are supposed to be growing food for everyone be hungry?
Thank you Amy and Sheldon, for sharing the story of rural poverty and hunger. It's an incongruity that is all too much alive in America. No Kid Hungry can make the difference. It doesn't really take much, and it starts with the No Kid Hungry Pledge.
Posted by Cate on January 11, 2011
This project is a positive one and we support its efforts. As a blind citizen I can only hear what is around me but as a mother I can can feel the pain of the children living in extreme poverty all across America.
We also are trying to help these childeren by aiding in finding safe and afordable housing ventures at New Visions of America Foundation in Colorado.
Cynthia
Posted by Cynthia Jones on January 12, 2011
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