Local couple helping those in need

A Grand Junction couple is helping change lives for those less fortunate.

Marv and Ellie Walworth have spent the past several years working with a nonprofit organization 'Food for the Poor' that provides food, medicine, and shelter to the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Marv and Ellie recently came back from Jamaica, where they helped to build a village and school there. In the past, they also renovated a medical clinic for women and children in Guatemala and presented a boat and equipment for a fishing village in Haiti.

They say the work they have done has not only been beneficial for those in need there but has inspired them as well.

"I think more than anything else we've seen how much hope these people have in desperate situations," Ellie said.

"There were parents that didn't send their kids (to school) even though they could because of the unsafe conditions," Marv said. "Now they expressed that I can take my child there and feel good that they are safe."

In September, they will go back to help open the new school. They say the old school was in a high crime and gang-infested neighborhood and it's been moved to a new location.

The couple says there are lots of ways you can help. To learn more about Marv and Ellie, as well as 'Food for the Poor' you can click the links on the side of the article.