A Note from the Executive Director

Food doesn’t change us. Education doesn’t really change us either. What truly changes us are the people around us. This may seem like an overstatement but what we see every day at Love in Action and in our community bears this out. We want it to be hard to be hungry in the Tri-Cities. And the difference between thriving and suffering truly can be food. The difference between understanding and confusion can be education. But to see actual, sustained thriving requires more than material provision or information. Each of us needs others.

I’ll never forget my friend, Ken, who attended EmpowerU and found it to be the difference between having enough or monthly running out. When I sat with him to ask what had helped his situation, he had an incredibly simple reply. It was the people around him. He never mentioned the curriculum, although he clearly thought it meaningful. What he said was, somewhere in the conversation with those around him, he found they had answers he needed to understand. And he had answers they needed as well. And in the community he found the power not only to budget differently but to believe he could be the solution to his own problems. In fact, he realized he could even be the solution to the problems of others!