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As
an adult, Franklin was an assistant at major corporations
for 15 years, buying a house and racks of stylish suits.
But the bottom-line-driven business culture started to
eat at her. And the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks walloped
Franklin as if someone had landed a roundhouse blow to
the chest. The next day, she resigned from her position.
"Everyone
needed to assess why they were here," Franklin recaled
of her decision to leave.
Franklin
laid the ground work for her eventual departure when she
began dirtributing free food out of her car by "couponing,"
or unleashing 40 recruits and their double coupons on
local supermarkets.
"I
cut coupons until my fingers were bleeding," said
Bluses Goodwin, Franklin's mother who volunteers at the
food pantry.
Franklin
petitioned her church, Creech Temple on Hamilton Avenue,
to set up a pantry and afterschool program in the church
cafeteria. They cordoned off an area for offices, another
for a stockroom, and started feeding 50 people a month.
Now they are serving 1,500.
But
Franklin isn't about handouts. She creates "partnerships"-whether
is't convincing fast-food restarurants like White Castle
to donate their extras, or getting at the root of why
clients are hungry.
In
2004, Franklin secured salaries for eight local residents
to tutor children after school. She's helped the mentally
ill to locate housing and mothers to give up crack cocaine.
But
it's the energy from young children and teenagers who
motivate Franklin through 12-hour days and the financial
strain of forgoing a salary (her husband works six days
a week to compensate).
"Her
parents are both in gangs," said Franklin, pointing
to a girl in a hooded sweatshirt. And for a year, Franklin
said she struggled to understand the girl's angry outbursts,
but finally succeeded through an expressive dance troupe
started by the center.
Ebony
Freeman, a Forth Ward resident who runs the program, said
working at the center helped her shed a negative attitude.
Now Freeman, 24, is devoted to participants in the program,
regularly bringing them out to dinner on weekends.
"I
just have so much love for these kids," said Freeman,
as a girl threw her arms around Freeman and hugged her.
But
bills have to be paid and Franklin's greatest need is
funding. She receives all the provisions for the food
pantry through donations from charities and local companies.
Franklin's
teenagers collect change in the streets to pay for materials
and outings. And church officials say they want to relocate
the pantry to larger quarters on their property.
But
the building needs extensive and costly renvations, Franklin
said. In the meantime, she manages with frayed carpeting
and a makeshift storage room.
On
Monday, a former participant gave Franklin the money to
buy a suit for her television appearance-attire she no
longer wears or can afford. Putting on the pinstripes
once again felt nice, but she gets no greater satisfaction
than passing out plates of fried chicken and hugging her
afterschool children.
"They
are my babies," said Franklin, as three youngsters
cam over to "Miss Barbara." "I grew up
here, and I'm going to die here"
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