Arnold Harvey

Arnold Harvey was on his route in 2007, picking up waste from customers in the Washington, D.C., metro area, when he began to notice more people—particularly children—sleeping on the streets. With support from his manager, the Army veteran and father of five set up collection boxes at work for clothes and coats; he and his wife, Theresa, also started handing out bag lunches on a weekly basis near a local shelter. Those efforts have since blossomed into God’s Connection Transition, a 501(c)(3) that distributes donated food to some 5,000 families each month via local organizations and a warehouse that the Harveys established. Everyone goes through tough times, says Harvey. The thing to remember is that they, too, shall pass: “You just gotta outlast the storm by one day.”