Montgomery native honored for housing homeless
Kym Klass Montgomery Advertiser
Timikel Blakey Sharpe has for years encouraged others to make a difference in the lives of others. To listen to their heart, and to a mind that says to "do something." And she has set an example, as the Montgomery native whose vision in 2007 of housing homeless parents and their children recently earned her national recognition.
The former St. Jude student has been named a School Nutrition Hero for 2017 by the national nonprofit School Nutrition Foundation. "If you feel motivated to do something, then do something," Sharpe said. "One person can make an immense difference if you just start with something. You can. Big or small. It doesn't have to be grandiose. It can be picking up the elderly and taking them to the doctor."
One of five professionals chosen nationally, the 1976 St. Jude graduate and 1980 and 1984 graduate of Tuskegee University – where she earned both a bachelor's and master's in nutrition – Sharpe was determined to reduce the number of homeless in Montgomery. In 2008, she opened the Vision of Grace Transition Home. The Sheridan Heights home became a place of refuge for local homeless families, providing them with a safe, temporary space to live.