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Tears welled up in the father’s eyes. He had always been able to take care of his family, but during an unusually harsh winter in the Alaskan wilderness he didn’t know what to do.

The fishing season hadn’t been as productive as normal, and food was scarce. Soaring energy costs consumed much of the household income. He was faced with an impossible decision.

“He said he had to choose between buying stove oil and groceries to keep his family from starving,” said Luther Harrison, the Samaritan's Purse Director of North American Projects.

Many Yup’ik Eskimo families living in isolated villages in Western Alaska were struggling with the same tough choice. A gallon of stove oil cost as much as $8. Groceries—where they were available—were prohibitively expensive, with a gallon of milk selling for $10.

Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham learned of the lack of food in the villages after a conversation with Alaska Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, and committed to help.

We purchased 44,000 pounds of groceries, including pancake mix, instant potatoes, corn, rice, soup, crackers, noodles, spaghetti sauce, and other staples. Local volunteers packed the food into boxes for 1,000 families.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Lt. Gov. Parnell joined Graham as our aircraft flew food boxes to the villages of Marshall and Russian Mission along the frozen Yukon River.

The food was gratefully received, as was the message that they had not been forgotten.

“It felt like someone actually cared about our small villages,” 28-year-old Russian Mission resident Jojo Changsak said after the group visited the community of 330 people.

In the depth of the Arctic winter, airplanes are the only way to bring relief to villages that are hundreds of miles from the nearest highway. In the following weeks Samaritan's Purse airlifted 44-pound boxes of food to an additional 17 villages.

“One villager said it best,” Harrison said. “This won’t alleviate all of our needs, but it is offering us hope.”