A stone’s throw from where we live in Southern Appalachia, we have neighbors who are desperately poor, hungry, and cold.

After having filled and monitored a nearby food donation box since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve learned so much, from afar. I know when SNAP benefits have halted. I know that in the worst weather, caloric needs skyrocket. I can see by what’s taken, how desperate people are.

My heart is attached! But I just can’t keep buying groceries for others on my own, anymore. I am a great power shopper, with a background in Food Anthropolgy, who has lived in this region since 1986. I know what to do, but how to keep it up?

As I write this, local temps will drop into the teens Fahrenheit. Many will lose power, but a number never had it in the first place. They use wood for heat, in virtually uninsulated (sometimes abandoned) trailers and old cabins. There’s no getting them heat — not a fundraising option. Most do not have working cars to travel to a grocery store 20+ minutes away, if they have any money at all, let alone a job, or even to get to the food bank 30 minutes away. (The food bank where I’ve volunteered a bit, and also learned a great deal.) Some are multiple-generation households. Some children are barely able to eat on weekends and holidays, whenever school is out, and free breakfast and lunch programs are not available. Their teachers and school counselors worry about them, then.

This is a request for a relatively few number people, but a need I can fill, oversee, and report back on. It’s a one-woman band.