The person in front of you at the grocery store may not be able to read the nutritional labels on the products she’s buying.

In Hall County, one in four residents lacks basic literacy skills, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics, and the problem is ongoing.

“The statistics are pretty compelling,” said Jeffrey Kridel, a member of the Lumpkin County Literacy Coalition. “What we find is that we need to adjust the capability of people to read because jobs are not being continued. We have to help train the work force in our community and get them off the financial support the state and county provides.”

When the illiteracy cycle is generational, the solutions are particularly difficult to pin down.

“It’s generational, unfortunately, and there are a lot of families where the granddaddy and daddy couldn’t read, so why should the adult son now be able to?” he said. “But we need to prepare our work force, bring jobs and opportunities here and hopefully help bring economic development back to the county.”

The coalition supports several programs to help all ages — the Dolly Parton Imagination Library that sends a free book to children monthly, GED programs through a partnership with Lanier Technical College and tutoring programs with Lumpkin County Detention Center inmates.

“We work with the school superintendent and found out that kids have done dramatically better with reading comprehension, and the program is hitting a 50 percent impact,” he said, noting the group ships out 700 books a month for half of the 1,400 children younger than 5 in the county. “It starts with ‘The Little Engine That Could’ and moves up, so by the time they’re 5, they’re saying ‘Look out kindergarten, here I come.’”

Generational illiteracy is especially a problem when parents can’t read the books to their children.

“That happens a lot, but the books are simple and have pictures in them, so it helps the parents learn to read,” Kridel said. “It also helps to build the family unit, and we hope there’s less family abuse and joblessness, which cause further problems.”

The economy has brought complications for the coalition as well, forcing them to drop a full-time executive director and adjust funding to keep programs afloat.

“We’re all volunteers now, and we have to keep on the cutting edge with fundraising ideas,” he said. “As a nonprofit, you’re only as good as how new and interesting you are.”

For three years, the group has hosted a pie contest and an adult spelling bee to raise money. This winter, the group is adding a murder mystery auction to its list.

In Hall County, the Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy hosts an annual spelling bee and focuses on basic reading skills for adults, as well as English as a second language and GED preparation and testing. Many students take GED classes at Lanier Tech, which coordinates literacy programs in eight surrounding counties.

“We take students as far as they need to go and have a transition adviser who helps students make that leap to the next step of education,” said Brenda Thomas, associate vice president of adult education at Lanier Tech. “Would you ever tell someone they only had one chance to learn to read, and it was before age 21? What if you had to tell people they have to suffer the rest of their lives because they didn’t take advantage of educational opportunities earlier?”

The programs see a range of students where “life got in the way” and they couldn’t finish high school or college degrees, often due to financial difficulties that caused them to take up a job to support the family.

“It could be they had a job, didn’t graduate from high school, and moved up in the career but the company went away,” Thomas said. “Then they couldn’t even get a job as a custodian. Some people just need that second chance or third, fourth and fifth.”

Some students may not make it to the GED stage, but the goal is to keep moving up.

“Some adults may never learn to read at a high level, but they learn to read to a child or go to the grocery store,” she said. “The quality of life gets better, and that’s what matters.”

Gainesville and Hall County schools focus on literacy, too, by pushing creative ways to learn reading comprehension. For students in poor families or those learning English as a second language, the battle can be tough.

At schools such as Fair Street International Baccalaureate World School, where 98 percent of students receive free or reduced lunch, children don’t have the materials at home to supplement what they learn in school.

“When we give out books here, the kids walk out with them like they’re the Dead Sea Scrolls,” said Kim Davis, assistant principal at Fair Street. “They’re thrilled to get a book and cherish them. The don’t get to do art or music or P.E. at home, and that’s why our children love to come to school.”

The school opens the library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Davis said she likes to see how community members come out to curl up with a book.

“The children bring their parents, too, who sometimes are learning to read along with them,” she said.

Literacy skills are essential at all ages, and enrichment exercises aren’t just for the strugglers.

“If you don’t use them, you lose them,” said Ava White of Ava White Tutorials on Washington Street. “Instead of sitting in front of the TV, students should be reading during the summer and using computer programs that help them to type and create stories.”

Reading and writing skills build over time, and the learning process doesn’t stop, even for adults.

“Keep your children active,” she said. “When grocery shopping, tell them to be your scribe and write the grocery list. Make it a game, and they won’t even realize they’re learning.”