Helping make ends meet begins with awareness

ISSUE: When Ends Don't Meet
OUR VIEW: Caring readers respond

Last month, The News-Enterprise published “When Ends Don’t Meet,” a series of stories about struggling Hardin Countians.

A member of the local community who had something to share or give spoke up following each story, all of which were told from the sites of community organizations that help get the ends a little closer.

Those organizations and programs include Severns Valley Baptist Church’s South Dixie Outreach, Community Health Clinic of Hardin and LaRue Counties, Kids Café at New Hope Community Church, Feeding America/Kentucky’s Heartland, Warm Blessings Soup Kitchen and Hardin County Habitat for Humanity.

At a motel on the south end of Elizabethtown, where South Dixie Outreach provides meals and fellowship, a sick woman needed a hospital bed in the room that serves as her home. A more fortunate Hardin Countian had one ready to donate and called The News-Enterprise to find out how to get it to the woman in need.

Kids Café’s purpose is to serve children living in low-income housing areas, in part by providing a weekly meal. Organizer Nelle Thomas reported that as many as 10 new volunteers are helping out, two local churches have suggested partnerships, two businesses are supporting the cause and an Eastview couple has started collecting food and other items from their friends for Kids Café.

Tami Delany of Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland, said the organization has seen a spike in volunteer inquiries in the past month.

Other organizations have been receiving strong volunteer participation, too.

At The News-Enterprise, writers have fielded many inquiries from people who want to volunteer and people who need help.

These organizations and so many others are a vital resource for many in Hardin County and it is encouraging to see Hardin Countians lend a hand. We should all be proud to live in a place where such compassion is shown.

We’d be prouder still to lend our own hands.

It seems there is need of every variety. If you have spare time, consider volunteering. If you have extra cash, consider donating. If you have an extra coat, a stock pile of food or even a spare hospital bed lying around, consider how much someone else might need it.

The community can and is making a difference.

This editorial represents a consensus of The News-Enterprise editorial board.