To the editor:

Her shaking caught my eye. The woman did not look well. I was volunteering at Just Food, our local food bank, on a frigid Friday. I lifted a container of bean soup into her backpack.

“I’m staying at the (homeless) camp,” she offered.

Her trembling hand reached for her weathered sack. She shuffled back out into the cold.

I wondered: Beyond something warm for her tummy, how about a doctor? A roof over her head?

Human beings don’t divide up into neat categories; a hungry person here, an unhealthy or unhoused person there. People who endure all these at once are overwhelmed.

The clearest path toward health for our most vulnerable citizens — the 18,000 of our county’s residents who live below the federal poverty line — is one that is blazed by our local government, nonprofits and other community groups coming together to achieve a common goal: reducing poverty in Douglas County.

Right now, these partners, along with the United Way of Kaw Valley, are collaborating to create a plan that provides for the whole family — children and parents together — to achieve economic security through building education, economic assets, social capital, health and well-being.

I am a proud supporter of United Way of Kaw Valley because I know no one group can do this work alone, but together we can bring hope to our neighbors most at risk.

Imagine a community where no one must stand in line for free soup.

Peter A. Luckey,

Lawrence