Family-to-Family

Share Your Bounty

Sponsor a Family

For residents of Mingo County, a mountainous, coal-rich rural area bordering eastern Kentucky, access to the outside world is limited. Many people don’t have reliable clean water or telephone service, and transportation to jobs is difficult for the large number of households that can’t afford to repair a car when it breaks down. 

According to 2019-2023 Census Department data:

  • 38% of children under 18 live below the federal poverty line
  • About a quarter of households have an income of under $15,000
  • Only 8% of residents over 25 have a Bachelor’s degree

Mingo County has the dubious distinction of ranking last of 55 West Virginia counties for adverse health behaviors, including smoking, obesity, binge drinking, teenage births and motor vehicle crash deaths. Opioid addiction is rampant — in 2021 West Virginia had the highest rate of death due to drug overdoses of all 50 states.

Our community liaison in Kermit is Donald Bowen of Vineyard United Baptist Church, located just across the state line in nearby Inez, Kentucky. The Save-A-Lot store in Inez provides grocery gift cards to Family-to-Family’s sponsored families, which are distributed by Donald Bowen once a month. 

Community Contact
Donald Bowen
Vineyard United Baptist Church
PO Box 334
Inez, Kentucky 41224

Read more about Mingo County:

Data Sources:
U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

A rural community at the base of Pine Mountain in Eastern Kentucky, Jenkins has one of highest poverty rates in the state. Letcher County, where Jenkins is located, was once a prominent coal mining area, providing over 24,000 jobs for the local population. Today, the number of coal-related jobs has dwindled to about 100. Jenkin’s population, currently just over 1,400, has steadily decreased and poverty is widespread.

Data from the 2024 census:

  • The median income is $27,200
  • 32% of people and 25% of children live below the poverty line
  • ~37% of households have an income of under $25,000

Family-to-Family’s Jenkins community partner is Angela Gibson, the Family Resource and Youth Service Center liaison for the Jenkins Independent School District. Angela identifies families in need for our program and distributes monthly groceries to the families. The Whitesburg Walmart provides groceries for our sponsored families.

Sponsored families in Jenkins and nearby McRoberts have also been recipients of Family-to-Family’s Victory Garden program. Since 2010, about 20 families have received donated gardening equipment and seeds for growing beds of vegetables and fruit, often along with egg-laying chickens. We also provided supplies for a large community vegetable garden on the Jenkins elementary school grounds, which is used both as a teaching opportunity (the kids learn to compost as well!) and to provide vegetables for the whole community.

Community Partner:
Angela Gibson
Jenkins Independent School
269 Highway 3086
Jenkins, Kentucky 41537

For more information about Jenkins:

Data Source: Censusreporter.org, U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS 5-year estimates, 2024)

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Once a booming auto manufacturing center, Flint today is a dying industrial town with high poverty and unemployment. The water crisis that exploded in 2014 has added even more expense and stress for the population, with the burden falling mostly on the poor. Although the state determined the water quality to be safe in 2017, community organizations continue to warn that Flint’s water is undrinkable in many parts of the city.  

In 1970, General Motors employed 80,000 people in Flint; by 2015, that number was 6,000. More recently, with GM focusing on truck manufacturing, Flint has been spared some of the sweeping layoffs announced for facilities in other parts of Michigan. Nonetheless, the city has lost a significant portion of its more affluent population in recent years, even though Flint is home to four institutions of higher learning, including Kettering University, an engineering school that is the fastest growing university in Michigan. Vacant school buildings dot the city, as do acres of concrete surrounded by barbed wire, marking the remains of the factories where tens of thousands of people once worked.

According to 2024 U.S. Census data, in Flint, MI:

  • ~42% of households have an annual income of under $25,000
  • 34% of residents and 46% of children under 18 live in poverty
  • the median household income is $41,410

Family-to-Family’s partner in Flint is the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Flint, an organization that provides extensive afterschool programs for 1,500 area children ages 7 to 17, 70% of whom live at or below the poverty level. Programs include arts classes, literacy programs, sports, a homework center, computers, a video music production center and a game room. BGCGF serves 20,000 meals a year to area children as well.

Family-to-Family’s contacts at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Flint identify Flint families in need for F-to-F and distribute the monthly food to the families. Food for sponsored families comes from The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

Community Partner:
Tauzzari Robinson
The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Flint
3701 North Averill Avenue
Flint, MI 48506

Sources: Censusreporter.org, U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS 1-year estimates, 2024)

Read more about Flint:

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Families are available for sponsorship in these communities:These communities are currently fully sponsored: