In February 2006, Tyson Foods powered the fight against hunger in the Orlando , Florida area. Together with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” the company rewarded the generosity and determination of one woman and her children as the family strives to improve the lives of others in their community.

 

For years, Sadie Holmes battled addiction but eventually won and turned her life around.  When Sadie’s community witnessed this, they reached out to her and began to donate food, clothing, and furniture, which allowed for her to make a brand new start. When the donations became more than her family needed, Sadie started donating it to others in need. These actions lead to the creation of the first non-profit in their community, Sadie Holmes Help Services, Inc. Although this organization was initially run out of the Holmes house, in 2003 she and her children made the decision to move into a rented apartment so they could have more room for the rapidly increasing amount of donations.

 

Sadie doesn’t pay herself for her work but instead supports herself and her children out of minimal child support. She really believes that her purpose in life is to run this organization and help others in need, and she teaches these values to her children. Their goal is to build a large enough home so that they can live and run the non-profit out of the same building, with a long-term plan of building a halfway house for recovering drug addicts so they don’t have to go back to the streets.

 

Unfortunately, their home was damaged by Hurricane Charley and without enough money to fix it, they lost their insurance. Further damage from a fire in 2005 only served to make things worse. Somehow, Sadie continues to run the non-profit out of that home and manages to rent a separate space for her family.