Five years ago, I would not be here. My mother got food stamps. I would not go into a grocery store and spend one dollar of it. But you change as you get older and your willing to take help.

Resident of Harlan

Coming back home with the necessities of life, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't fair. I had spent the previous day handing out food and other necessities and had witnessed the poverty of my neighbors here in the United States of america. Images haunted me of the feverish child who had once had a simple cold, but, with no medication available, had become very ill; of Sherman , the boy my son's age, without shoes on a cold winter day; of the teenage mothers, excited because they could get clothes for their children; of the women whose husbands were sick from working long shifts in the only job they were qualified for and the job was killing them; of girls who dropped out of school because they did not have the basic personal necessities to go to school without being embarrassed...It just wasn't fair. But in the midst of my despair, my son asked me how we could really make a difference in the lives of those people. And, I realized, we could keep going back!

Nancy L. - Project JOY Team