Carrollton Missouri: Abundant Farmland Masks Food Insecurity

Orchard operation near Waverly, Mo
On a recent trip to Columbia to visit my daughter attending the University of Missouri my wife and I took a scenic route through the historic town of Lexington, then went north on highway 65 out of Waverly. The hilly area is home to many fruit orchards, some of which line the roads. Fruit stands and orchard stores are common to the area. North out of Waverly across the Missouri River the landscape changes to flat bottomland containing expansive row crop farms covering thousands of acres. This abundant farmland stretches 65 miles east from Carrollton to Moberly on highway 63.

Orchard near Waverly, Mo.
From the look of the farm size and large quantities of orchards you would think this provides a satisfactory quality of life for people in the nation's breadbasket, but a story about a food assistance program in the Kansas City Star revealed a different side to this area.

The two schools in Carrollton, county seat of Carroll County, "that serve kindergartners through fourth-graders will have enough food at home to tide them over the weekend. The schools are becoming the latest to join Harvesters’ BackSnack program." A school is eligible for the program if a large percentage of students participate in the National School Lunch program.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article4438068.html#storylink=cpy
“We’ve been on the waiting list for about three years,” said Stefanie Kissick, a family support advocate for the Carrollton R-VII District. “When they (the parents) saw we were starting this up, they were just elated that we could help them.”
View of Missouri River north of
Waverly, Mo on highway 65
It seems the rich, abundant farmland does not serve everyone in the community. The latest statistics from the 2013 Missouri Hunger Atlas show 15% of Carroll County participating in the SNAP/Food Stamps program, over 50% of students eligible for the National School Lunch program, unemployment at 11% nearly twice the state average and income levels 12% lower than the state average. Farming and related jobs in the county don't seem to provide an adequate income to avoid food assistance from government and private charity programs.

One indication of this trend could be found in the consolidation of farms, as a former hog farmer and retired Sprint employee mentioned during a visit to Harvesters last week. He said the growth of farm sizes was evident 40-plus years ago when he attended high school in Carrollton.

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