Looking back on 2025, Americans Helping Americans® executive director Cameron Krizek says, “When I look back at what was able to be accomplished this year, I see tens of thousands of Americans who have responded to Americans Helping Americans® letters and emails with their donations to help the people struggling in the Appalachian Mountains.
“The combined effort of you, your friends, family, and community ensured children have the supplies required to get a good education, helped an aspiring nurse pay for her exams, and kept an elderly American who has given so much of their life to better the world be more food secure during times of uncertainty.
“There are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
Supporting Basic Needs and Food Security
The programs of Americans Helping Americans® focus on partnering with community-based efforts that target the emergency needs of severely poverty-stricken families and individuals in rural Appalachia, including providing food, shoes, winter coats, medical assistance, school supplies, utility assistance, and home repairs for families, people with disabilities, elderly individuals, and veterans who suffer due to economic and physical hardship. These efforts align with the Basic Needs initiative on the official Americans Helping Americans® website.
In addition, our programs focus on children’s futures by supporting after-school programs, summer camps, and enrichment programs, summer food programs, youth mentorship, vocational training, and bridging the digital divide challenges that Appalachian children experience.
Programmatic Highlights for the Year
Programmatic highlights for the year include:
Partnering with grassroots organizations in Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia that offer afterschool programs to address the educational needs of students. Through the support from Americans Helping Americans®, 380 students participated in structured learning opportunities, physical activities, and received guaranteed nutritious meals.
Our partners also reported that the mentorship and guidance provided contributed to meaningful academic gains, with students showing improved test scores.
In McDowell County, West Virginia, Big Creek People in Action (BCPIA), which operates a free after-school program for 30 students, provides a safe environment with caring adults who foster strong bonds and support academic growth.
This year, a group of college students from Notre Dame spent a week with BCPIA working on housing rehab projects for the community. After working to restore homes, they had free time and decided to spend it helping the students in the after-school program with their studies.
The college students assisted the young students with their homework, multiplication tables, reading, and spelling, much to the delight of the impressionable students.
During their time with BCPIA, the children and college students developed a strong bond. So much so that the children would see the college students in the hall and go running toward them, thanking them for their help.
Two little girls in particular were in the middle of test week, and Liam, one of the college students, offered to help them. Liam is a law student and really wanted to see the children ace their tests. After they worked hard together throughout the week, the little girls came into the center with their eyes beaming, ready to show Liam that they both aced their tests!
“It was truly an honor to have the students volunteer their time with the children, and we have asked them to please work with our students when they come back next year,” commented BCPIA executive director Dyanne Spriggs.
Summer Programs and Classroom Support
Summer camp programs supported by Americans Helping Americans® in Kentucky and West Virginia provided safe and structured environments for a total of 273 children during the school break but also addressed the critical needs that are often magnified during the summer months, such as food insecurity, academic learning loss and lack of outlets for recreation.
Through the Americans Helping Teachers grant program, five grants totaling $20,000 were awarded to teachers who used the funding to purchase books for the school library, cover the travel expenses to take students on field trips, create a trauma-informed safe space for students, and develop a schoolwide behavioral support system rewarding good behavior.
Workforce and Career Support
Through the Want2Work (W2W) initiative, five schools received a total of $70,000 in grant funding to purchase professional uniforms and accessories, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), certifications, as well as field trips to recruitment conferences, job sites, skills competitions, and leadership clubs, which helped a total of 765 students with their dream career. The Want2Work initiative removes barriers for students pursuing GED programs, vocational training, and certification exams, creating pathways into careers.
For example, in Georgia, White County High School student Isabella enrolled in the nursing program to pursue a magnanimous career. She comes from a single-parent home and is driven to become a nurse to break the cycle of poverty for her family. She excels in healthcare science class and Advanced Placement science classes at the high school. She needed a set of scrubs and a stethoscope for her internship, and because of the supporters of Americans Helping Americans®, she began her internship with Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Labor & Delivery and the ER. She was able to start building relationships with the hospital she may end up working for after getting her degree from the University of North Georgia. Her supervisors say, “I wish Isabella was graduating college right now, I would hire her.”
“Thank you so much for supporting my future nursing career!,” says Isabella. “I have chosen to pursue a career in nursing because of my passion for helping others and my fascination with the human body’s functions and abilities. The scrubs and stethoscope will help me in my future career and current internship by providing me with the necessities for a successful nursing career. The Americans Helping Americans® program is exceptionally kind for providing grants to purchase necessary materials for many American youth to start their successful careers. I am beyond grateful for this act of kindness! Thank you so much!”
Home Rehabilitation and Safe Housing
This year, through our home rehab repair program, 141 home rehabilitation projects were completed, servicing 154 individuals. Among them was Evelyn Evans, 75, of Tennessee, who lives in a double-wide manufactured home that needed extensive work done. She relied on her son to help with various household tasks and administer her medicine. The left side of the front porch collapsed due to a falling tree last year during a storm, and the remaining deck surface and structure were deteriorated and in need of replacement. Her wall underneath the living room window and bedroom window were rotten due to window air-conditioning units. There were also signs of effluent above the septic tank at the time the team from Appalachian Ministries of the Smokies (AMOS) visited for inspection. Lastly, her shingles were in really bad shape.
After the team from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, finished the project, Mrs. Evelyn expressed her joy to AMOS. “I’m able to sit outside on my porch for the first time in years,” she expressed while pulling air in from her oxygen machine. “I’m so proud of my porch and everything they did for me.” She speculated that those kids were going to grow up knowing what it felt like to help people, and she hoped they continue to do that.
Regarding utilities and basic needs, nearly 60 percent of Americans are a paycheck away from being homeless, and missing rent or a utility payment is grounds for eviction in many communities we serve. Americans Helping Americans® ensures that hardworking people keep a roof over their family’s heads, the elderly have electricity to power medical devices, and children can do homework under a lamp, not a candle.
Food Security and Emergency Assistance
This year, the government shutdown caused massive harm due to many people, especially those in Appalachia. Families who already lived on the edge suddenly found themselves without the stability of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, unsure of when—or even if—their monthly assistance would resume. For the tens of thousands, we serve across Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia SNAP is essential for their food security. When that support froze, households with children, seniors, and veterans were forced to make impossible choices: skip meals, stretch what little they have far past what is reasonable, or go without altogether.
Amid this uncertainty, Americans Helping Americans® stepped in thanks to the generosity of donors who were dedicated good neighbors. A scheduled delivery of food boxes was sent out in October, supplementing meals, but when news came that the shutdown would impact SNAP we worked hard to ensure 2,000 additional food boxes were delivered quickly. Each box contained enough shelf-stable food to keep a family fed for nearly a week. Dyanne told us, “One woman even cried when she received the supplies because she didn’t know how she was going to feed her family.” Thank you for providing dignity to your fellow American. In total, 18,648 food boxes were delivered in 2025.
In addition to the food boxes, through our food security program, four partners were provided with grants totaling $27,700 to sponsor their holiday food celebrations in Appalachia, feeding 3,358 individuals. These grants are extremely important to these communities because without them there wouldn’t be any main entrée to the meal. Our grants fund the primary protein for the celebrations ensuring a healthy, nutritious event for all recipients. BCPIA purchased 160 hams to deliver to all residents in War, West Virginia, along with a food box also distributed by Americans Helping Americans®. In Gainesville, Georgia, LAMP Ministries fed 678 Gainesville residents at their Thanksgiving celebration. In Beattyville, Kentucky, Cumberland Mountain Outreach distributed turkey vouchers to 380 people for Thanksgiving and also held a Christmas party at their facility for 219 children, 169 adults, and supported 74 volunteers providing a hot meal and distributed coats and blankets. “This was the best year ever,” commented Church of God leader Larry Hyler.
This past summer, Americans Helping Americans® restarted our Summer Feeding Program to address food insecurity among children and families. AMOS and Labor of Love in Tazewell, Virginia, each received $10,000 grants to operate mobile feeding programs, using vans and buses to reach vulnerable communities. Through their efforts, a total of 2,249 meals were distributed, ensuring children had reliable access to nourishment during the summer months when school meals are unavailable.
Cameron noted that the origin of AMOS summer food program is extremely fortunate. About the time he brought up the idea to feed children in the summer months by means of driving to where they are at and improving food security, AMOS executive director, Jean-Ann Washam, was contacted by the First Baptist Jefferson City looking for a service project in the community. Several members in the church are teachers, and they approached Jean-Ann about children during the summer. It was beneficial to have the core group of volunteers, especially teachers, familiar with the children. Having the same group of volunteers at the sites each week allowed them to build relationships with the families. “Without your support, we would not have these items to give out to our families,” explains Jean-Ann.
The AMOS Lunchbox was a weekly food distribution program primarily for the youth. AMOS offered food boxes for adults if they stopped by and were in need of food because no one should be turned away. They were also able to hand out boxes filled with food for infants. In June, they distributed to three sites; two were local housing authority properties and the third was the local elementary school. They provided food bags for the children taking summer classes. AMOS served 98 children weekly. In July, they distributed it to the two housing authority properties and the local middle school since summer school ended for elementary school and began for middle school. They serviced 75 children weekly.
In addition, through our Community Outreach Program, over $100,000 in relief packages were delivered for victims of Hurricane Helene.
“Our grants give immediate aid to those who are most vulnerable in our society, as well as empower the people who want to act and provide services for their fellow American,” says Cameron. “Our grants multiply the impact by strengthening the hands that lift others out of poverty.”
