Page 89 - Coffee County

a living again. Sharree said, “It was hard, but we were used to doing without. We have always lived tight in case something like this happened. We don’t drive new cars. Mine is a 1998 and E.D.’s farm truck has several hundred thousand miles on it.” Sharree put in job applications, but jobs were scarce since the area’s unemployment rate was almost twenty percent after Pilgrim’s Pride shut down. She had driven a school bus for six years, but was unable to qualify again because of her diabetes. The Lotts are thankful for the banks and merchants in Douglas that stood behind them and other poultry growers. They especially wanted to thank AgSouth, Lott Builders Supply, Lott Hardware, Poultry Supply, Reed’s Plumbing & Electric Supply and the gas companies. Sharree said, “I don’t know how they treated other folks but I know they treated us with respect. They understood the situation. They weren’t calling us every week. They worked with us and when we got our frst chicken check we went around and got almost everyone paid up. It felt good to be able to pay folks who stood behind us.” They feel it will still be several more grow outs before they can get back to the comfortable side fnancially. Sharree said she broke down and cried when a lady from the Georgia Department of Human Resources in Douglas called her and said she might qualify for food stamps. Sharree applied and was eligible. Sharree said, “Some people look down on people receiving food stamps, but that $150 a month we received for three months was a blessing. It wasn’t a lot, but it bought bread, milk, eggs, and cereal to go with the food we had put up in the freezer and grits and corn meal from our grist mill.” The Lotts started their grist mill in 1989 and custom grind corn into grits and corn meal. “The grist mill is what kept us going. It didn’t pay all our bills, but it helped and we ate a lot of

The last two years have been a struggle for the Lotts. They cancelled their health insurance and E.D. cashed in his life insurance policy. They moved out of their 100-year-old home that they had moved from the Baker Highway in Douglas to the farm thirty-four years ago into an old traveler camper they had because it was cheaper to heat and cool. They lived off food they put up in the freezer and the little money their grist mill made and E.D.’s social security check. The Lotts are thankful to have the chickens and for the community they live in that gave them so much support during the time they didn’t have chickens and much of an income.