“The first time I came, I only brought a videographer,” Jenny said. “It was an investigative trip. We heard all the stories, and we were moved, so we came to see what we could do.”

It was Thanksgiving weekend in 1999. Chief Jones had an itinerary for Jenny and her videographer. The sergeant planned on taking them to several of the orphanages and mountain villages.

First, though, he told of a lady named Clementina who ran a soup kitchen in a nearby village. Jenny was interested in finding her, so they drove to Cane. Chief Jones didn’t know Clementina, but in the past someone from the Air Force had been involved in helping her. Because military men transfer so often, Clementina lost her support.

“There are plenty of needs everywhere, but all the orphanages and villages I visited later in the week were hooked up with some organization, branch of the military, or form of help,” Jenny said.

Clementina had nobody. She was all by herself feeding 85 kids a day, twice a day.

The day Jenny met Clementina, the petite, old woman said, “I was praying the military would come back in my life so that I could get help. You are the angles God has sent to me.”

The 69-year-old woman had been serving the kids in the soup kitchen for 27 years. She had retired from teaching and opened a soup kitchen when she realized the children couldn’t concentrate in school because they were so hungry.

“We decided right away to help,” Jenny said. “She didn’t have anybody.”

This is a many-layered project, Jenny said. The main problem for the poor families is hunger. It pulls kids out of school so they can work to buy food. But that halts their education, which forces them to remain in a level of poverty.

Just over a month after her first trip to Honduras, Jenny filed papers to create a nonprofit organization called The KidSAKE Foundation. She knew it would be easier to get grants and aid if people could make tax-deductible donations.

“I just keep putting my hand out because I don’t have any money to do it myself,” Jenny said. “I had to rely on a donation to pay the $500 to become a nonprofit.”

Throughout the first year, she did whatever she could to send money to Clementina for the soup kitchen. Because of her foundation’s involvement, the Air Force picked up Clementina as a project again. They’ve stayed connected. Jenny sends a cashier’s check to her contact at the base when she can. For five years, during their off-duty, volunteer hours, airmen at the base have helped. They pick up Clementina, take her shopping at the market and deliver the food to the soup kitchen for her.

“Now we’re supposed to send $400 for the 90 kids each month, but I haven’t been able to keep that up,” Jenny said. “They’ve had to turn away half of the children. I don’t send it on a regular basis because I don’t have regular supporters.”

She needs people that are committed to donating every month so that the soup kitchen can continue, Jenny said.

Ten cents a meal, or $1 a week would sponsor a child.

Jenny is going to continue to work on raising money so the children can eat each month, but she and Clementina have another project on the horizon. They have drawn out plans to build a community center that would include a new soup kitchen with modern appliances, a medical clinic, an educational resource center, dorm rooms for visiting missionary or volunteers and a meeting room as a place for training.

“We don’t want to just build a building, but we want to help the community build itself so that it can be self-reliant and have a brighter future,” Jenny said.

She believes they have an opportunity in this village to set up a model. Partnerships with Universities and donors can help a community become independent and rise up from the dregs of poverty.

The past five years have been a struggle, and the hardest part is yet to come, but apart from her family, Jenny says. But, there’s nothing she’s done in her entire life that has been as rewarding as being able to work in this village and join with other people to give hope to the children and to the mothers.

“It’s on my heart all the time,” Jenny said. “Everyday I think of Clementina—ever since my first trip here. I knew my life would change because I am softhearted. I didn’t know it would change this much.

“I know that Honduras will always be a part of my life ... for the rest of my life.”