Our founder, Kirstin Beck, got the opportunity in 2013 to visit Korah, Ethiopia, also known as the local trash dump. Here, she saw firsthand the emotional effect poverty had on the impoverished- from the mother who was unable to provide for her children to the daughter unable to look a stranger in the eye out of shame. Is their lack of food the greater issue or is it the fact that they feel unlove
d and unworthy? With that mindset, HOPE Project (Help Other People Eat) was formed, to help bring dignity back to those in poverty. We are doing this in Carroll County by providing a monthly meal to those in homeless shelters. Instead of a buffet line style service, we provide a fancy restaurant type of service. The room is decorated in an eloquent manner. Names of individual homeless people are called and escorted to their beautifully-clothed tables with china and silverware on them. They have a menu to choose from and waiters who take an interest in knowing their name. While waiting for their meal, they get to listen to live entertainment from local bands. They are treated as royalty; they are treated like a human. In providing meals, we are not only physically helping homeless people but emotionally too. We help show the homeless that they are loved and worthy by our actions towards them, not just our words. That is the vision of HOPE Project, that no person go to bed hungry- physically or emotionally.
