Denver , Colorado ( CNN ) -- When Shay Kelley lost her marketing job she got worried . When she lost her home and her car she got mad . `` I went off into the woods and I started yelling at God , '' she says . `` I did n't know why God would lead me up to this point in my life just to have me left with nothing . '' `` I was like , 'Just tell me what my purpose is , tell me why I 'm here and if you 'll just tell me I 'll work harder than for anything I have ever worked for anything else in my entire life . ' `` Within weeks she had her answer : Travel to all 50 states in 50 weeks . Collect canned goods for charities along the way and take a ton of pictures . She has dubbed it Project 50/50 . She stayed with friends while she waited tables and got together enough money to buy `` Bubba , '' her 1984 Ford pickup truck . She packed her camera , which she calls `` Roxy , '' and her dog , Zu Zu , and hit the road . She began on New Year 's Day in South Carolina , randomly going door to door to collect canned goods . `` I set a goal of 200 cans a week , which does n't sound like a lot , but the premise is [ that ] doing a little bit adds up to a lot , '' Kelley says . `` After a year , [ that 's ] 10,000 canned food items . '' She began to meet homeless people as she dropped off the canned goods , and she says they have surprised her with their generosity . She met Donald , a retired Navy sailor , at a library in South Carolina . `` He invited me to go to lunch to buy me a hot meal because I had been eating PowerBars for three days , '' Kelley says . `` I found out after he left -- after he paid the tab and paid my meter -- that Donald was homeless , that he was actually living in the shelter . '' `` That was the first week when I learned the people with the least tend to give the most . '' Donald was one of the first people she photographed . She posts her pictures on her website and Facebook page as she goes . She has more than 1,000 Facebook fans following her travels . See more of Kelley 's photos . One of those Facebook followers is Laurie Holleman Sherrod , who contacted Kelley with an unusual request : . She asked Kelley if she could find her son , Trey . The last time she heard , he was living on the streets in Santa Cruz , California . `` I thought that 's crazy , how do you find one homeless person in an entire city ? '' Kelley recalled . But she agreed to try and sure enough a few weeks later she happened upon a nice young man on the streets of Santa Cruz . `` And then here I am sitting around the table with Trey shooting a video for his mother who lives in South Carolina . '' As with everything that has happened to her so far , she credits her faith with guiding her . `` It is so important to me that God remains in the forefront of my life , '' she says . `` He leads me . He tells me to go right or go left . I ca n't really explain that to people , but I do n't do anything , God does it all . I 'm just standing here . '' iReporter tells the story of one homeless man . Through her photos she captures people down on their luck , but not ready to give up . She says it has made her own uncertain future easier to deal with . `` I just hope that people who are in really rough situations will realize that God did n't forget about them . God is just trying to prepare them for something even bigger , even greater and even more blessed than they can even imagine . ''
Jobless and unemployed , Shay Kelley decides to embark on a new mission . Starting on New Year 's Day , she began helping the homeless . She collected canned goods , then decided she wanted to do more . Kelley is traveling to all 50 states with her camera , photographing America 's homeless people .