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Changing the World
The Oprah Winfrey Show  |  April 03, 2007
Barbara Franklin opens a community center.


When Barbara first started passing out food on the streets, she says she realized that it was a doorway into people's lives. Through these interactions, she realized her community needed more than a food pantry…they needed a community center.

Barbara's church donated a nearby building for her community center, and she is working to raise funds to rehabilitate it. She also continues to run a food bank, an after-care center for children, a Section 8 program and a senior drop-off food program. "You could really see what the issues were in our community," she says. "I believed that the community center would be a lighthouse, so that I could see into the lives [of others]."

Want to help people in your community? Instead of throwing away your coupons, you too can save big money on nonperishable food items and donate them to the needy. Find a food pantry near you.
Printed from Oprah.com on Tuesday, May 21, 2013
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