Leftovers Page #4

of the wealthiest places

in America, what's

happening in the poorest?

Because if I'm seeing the same

thing in the poorest place

in America as what I just

saw in one of the wealthiest,

then we may have a

much bigger problem

on our hands than I

initially thought.

- My name is Cleda Turner,

and I'm the director of

Owsley County Outreach.

The Owsley County Outreach

is basically a food

backpack program.

And we feed children

on the weekend.

We send easily-prepared meals

home in their food backpack,

and then we also do the food

bags for the senior citizens,

here in Owsley County that

we know that has a need,

and we try to help supply that.

A big population of

Owsley is senior citizens,

the majority of it is.

And there is definitely a

really need for those people.

- [Seth] As far as feeding them?

- Yeah, feeding them, and

other assistance also.

There is a commodity program

here in Owsley County

that the Lacefields, Susan

and Jerry Lacefield do,

and they give out commodities

and stuff to seniors,

but the money only

covers 98 seniors.

And then the other

seniors are just left.

There's nobody helping them.

So when we were called by

the Senior Citizens Center,

if we could pick up

some of these people,

that's when we reached

out and started.

And that branched

out, to finding out

there were shut-in's,

who couldn't get out

and get extra food.

So that's when we started

doing the in-home,

taking and delivering to them,

and just spending

time with them.

Well, we brought you

some fresh pork chops,

and some green beans,

I mean some soup beans,

and some fruit and stuff today.

- Some soup beans.

- And some pork chops,

and some fruit, okay?

- No, my baby, it's not cooked.

- Yeah, I thought you might

wanna cook them beans.

- [Seth] So what's

your name again?

- Frank Couch, C-O-U-C-H.

- [Seth] Yeah.

Frank, you've lived here in

Booneville all your life?

Yeah, how'd you lose your hands?

How long ago was that?

- 1985.

- 1985, wow!

And now you're in a position

where it's nice to have

somebody like Cleda come by

and bring some food for you?

She is a good person.

- Yeah.

- There is a drug problem

here in Owsley County,

and it is to do mostly

with prescription drugs.

And the parents are addicted.

A lot of these kids also

live with grandparents,

because parents are

either dead or in jail.

They are living on

$674 a month income,

and they're raising these two

or three extra grandchildren,

and they're trying to feed them.

And you've heard the expression

"Hanging by the tips

of your fingernails?"

- [Seth] Yeah.

- That's what these

seniors are doing,

they're hanging by the

tips of their fingernails.

- [Seth] Hi there, young lady.

- [Woman] How are you?

- [Seth] How are you?

- [Woman] All

right, how are you?

- [Seth] Doing well,

good to see you.

- [Cleda] I come back

to check on you again.

- I'm a little

better than I was.

- Oh, good, that

makes me feel better.

The most important part

of the job is to spend

that little time with the people

and let them know that you

care, that you're there,

and that they can sit and talk,

and visit with them

for a little bit.

- Is it hard to,

with what you've got,

the money that

you've got coming in,

to be able to afford

food all the time here?

- Yes, it sure is.

Because once you pay your

bills, you ain't got nothing.

- [Seth] I would assume,

though, you're paying rent?

- I pay rent, I've got a

water bill, an electric bill.

Can't afford insurance.

Of course, it'd be a

good thing if I could,

but, you know, I can't.

- [Seth] Can you imagine

what your life would be like

if it wasn't for the

help of the stuff

that you're getting from Cleda,

and the stuff you're

getting from Susie?

- I don't want to imagine,

because I know I

couldn't make it.

I mean, I'm just

plain, you know.

- That's a fact.

- I don't know what

people's going to do,

times is getting so hard.

- Of the four grandchildren

that you're raising right now,

are their parents around?

- [Woman] Somewhere.

- [Seth] Somewhere?

- But I don't know, they belong

to my daughter, so I don't know.

Well, one of them

belongs to Jamie.

- So you got three

of them here now?

- Now, but she's here too.

- Yeah, but I mean, the

three of them right now.

- Yeah.

- It's gotta be tough, right?

To raise three

additional mouths,

with what you're feeding

and what you're making?

- Sure it is.

(rain hitting the ground)

- There's a lot of grandparents

that are raising

their grandchildren.

And so there, again, that goes

into their limited resources

that they have for food.

So, I mean, I'm sure

money is very, very tight,

for many, many

families for food.

(knocking on door)

- [Seth] And you've

got your grandchildren

living with you now?

- I did have five of them.

They just moved out.

- [Seth] Okay, but

you still have one.

- Uh-huh.

Well, that's a grandson

and a great-grandson.

- [Seth] Oh, you

have a grandson?

Is it hard sometimes to

feed all the mouths in here?

- It was, it really was.

There was 12 of us here.

And it was, yeah.

We did a lot of cooking, though.

Wasn't much snacks,

it was cooking.

- When the kids come

to school every day,

they get breakfast and

lunch at school, so then

the grandparents would just

have to feed them at night.

Obviously then having to

feed them three meals a day,

when they're out of school

or during bad weather days,

I'm sure, has been very,

very hard on these families.

- [Seth] You know, one

guy said if I told you

that six million seniors

go hungry every day,

one of his responses was,

"Well, you know, I guess

that's their choice."

What would your response

be to that person who said,

"Well, I guess that's your

choice that you didn't eat."

- Go knock on that one door.

You'll see that that person

doesn't have a choice.

They're not making a choice

between eating and not eating.

They may be making a choice

between eating and

paying the rent.

They may be making a

choice between eating

and taking their medication.

It's not a choice.

- Before I went blind,

I volunteered a lot.

I worked, I volunteered

for Susie at the Food Bank

and the senior citizen building.

I helped at the Catholic church.

- Which is those one crackers

that we had Saturday?

We could use more services

of people bringing food in.

We used to have it with

some groups that came

to work on houses and

do the other ministries

that they do, and would bring

us lots of food items, too.

That's been cut down somewhat.

But we could certainly use

more resources to get food,

and help to get the food, too.

It's a big job to go

160 miles round trip,

and pack a trailer

and pack a truck,

and, you know, we could

certainly use any resource

that would come our way.

There is a problem with

people having a lot of pride

here in eastern

Kentucky, especially.

And they don't like to

come and ask for food.

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