I am honored to have been asked to contribute to Sharing Witness. It provides a wonderful opportunity to share our life and work feeding kids in Appalachia. I will always do my best to convey the effects of poverty on our region while respecting our citizens. We are a proud and strong people, but we have lost our jobs. Therefore, we are poor and getting poorer.

As a region Appalachia ranks highest in the nation in unemployment, lowest in per capita income, and lowest in school funding. The very legitimate need for non-fossil fuels creates a dim future for our most plentiful resource, coal. The once bustling steel mills and pottery plants are nearly all closed. The part time jobs that have replaced those often dangerous but lucrative ones are poor substitutes providing low wages and few benefits. Our citizens are also the nation's least insured while at the same time we have the fewest medical professionals per capita and the fewest hospitals. 14% of us have diabetes along with a multitude of nutrition-related illnesses.

But statistics only tell part of the story. It's the personal stories that really convey what is happening to kids in Appalachia. One child, upon hearing the news that his school had been closed due to flooding, said, "Uh-oh, what am I going to eat today?" Another child, after eating a complete afterschool meal, said, "So that's what it feels like to be full?" Some children, when asked, will tell you they never expect to not be hungry. Others are more hopeful, saying, "Someday I'm going to have enough money to eat anything I want."

I am blessed with the opportunity to feed kids in Appalachia. When the buses are no longer running during the summer months, The Appalachian Nutrition Network goes to work. We are one of dozens of Summer Food Service sponsors serving this region providing tens of thousands of summer and afterschool meals. Without USDA nutrition programs thousands of our children would go to bed hungry.

Our work is challenging. We can drive from Columbus to Cincinnatti on I-71 in less time than it takes to drive across one of our rural counties. Getting food to kids and kids to food is challenging but at the end of the road, there is a child who says, "So that's what it feels like to be full." I look forward to sharing our stories through Sharing Witness.