Foundation Journal

>A user-friendly website developed by Western Michigan University and the Federal government has surpassed 1 million users. The Food Research and Action Center reported that the "site helps low-income parents learn healthier child feeding behaviors, and has information available in English and Spanish. During the past year, more than 417,000 WIC clients used the site to access training videos, recipe lists, and lessons on topics like dealing with children who are picky eaters and how to improve meal nutrition." The site hosts a wealth of information and a variety of online tools, such as a YouTube video channel geared to WIC participants as shown here.

Here's the Local Investment Commission's year-end summary through photos. LINC is one of Kansas City's largest sources of providing services for low-income families through public schools, including food assistance, health care and child care. Their innovative work provides a solid bridge for parent's direct involvement in their children's education. LINC in Photos 2012 from LINC on Vimeo .

Participation in the Breakfast in the Classroom , a U.S. Department of Agriculture program for students from low-income families, can reduce behavioral problems in the classroom as reported in a suburban St. Louis school district . I know of a student who had behavioral problems every day in the classroom that have almost stopped since he started getting breakfast in the classroom. He could have just been hungry.

Clay Shirky, scholar on democratization effects of social media, shared his thoughts on a panel at a recent Social Good conference. The panel focused on the problems and solutions to poverty in developing nations.

Thanks to the Kansas City Star' s Mary Sanchez for her clear and persistent voice on reducing the digital divide in Kansas City. Her Sunday, December 16, 2012 column shared efforts to provide free Wi-Fi access , very low-cost computers ($50), and free digital literacy classes to Rosedale Ridge residents in Kansas City, Kansas. When children leave school, district equipment becomes useless unless they can find a Wi-Fi hotspot. Now, that place is home. The plan is to work with housing authorities and other Section 8 property owners to expand the project on both sides of the state line. Rosedale Ridge Flyer on free Wi-Fi access provided by Connecting for Good.  

The author of a Kansas City Star opinion piece misleads readers to think the problem of U.S. poverty in low-income family households is caused by lack of a male breadwinner and cured by a couple getting married to improve their income level. The best part, author Joseph McLiney writes, is that the improvement happens with "no government handouts." He points out in his "Three rules for avoiding poverty" column how a Brookings Institute report underscores this connection, however, the column overlooks the fact that most U.S. students -- of all income levels -- attend public school, largely funded by state and local governments , as well as the Federal budget. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/14/3966589/midwest-voices-three-rules-for.html#storylink=cpy The Brookings Institute report "Combating Poverty: Understanding New Challenges for Families" says: ...only 34 percent of children whose parents were in the bottom income quintile enr

A major investigative series on the largest beef producers appeared over three days this week in the Kansas City Star . Star reporters should be congratulated on the amazing, in-depth work to present reports that clearly were not welcomed by the beef producers and supporters.  One co-worker who works on hunger relief said she had not seen the article yet because she does not subscribe to the paper. For anyone involved in the local farm/food movement, food safety, hunger relief, and nutrition, this article series is a MUST READ. While the articles pulled no punches on a range of topics, including the impact of the health of consumers and the impact on the environment with the mountains of cattle waste at feedlots, the series only focused a cursory glance at worker safety. The opening article in the series appearing in the Sunday, December 9, 2012 edition of the Star documented the large number of people getting sick from food. Specifically, the report mentions that "a rece

Pioneer Campus Public Computer Center located at 2700 E. 18 Street, Kansas City, MO (photo credit: Metropolitan Community College) I was curious to see what the facilities were like that housed the new Public Computer Center at the Pioneer Campus of the Metropolitan Community College on Kansas City's East Side. After all, the expansion of computer centers was publically-funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide computer access and training for anyone that wants to use the computers. This means community college students or anyone can use the computers after registering online or at the site. The registration allows administrators to track compliance with computer-use policies, but I did not interpret this as a limitation on people using the computers. Mario and Dale, lab technicians at the computer center, shared how the centers provide a full curriculum of free training classes from basic training to Microsoft Office to social media to iTun

Proposed and Existing Wind Projects in Kansas (link: PDF) An announcement by financial groups highlights a large investment in Wind Capital Group's Post Rock Wind Project in Kansas that will boost wind energy in the state. The company receiving the financing, Wind Capital Group, is the same business that built the Lost Creek Wind Farm in DeKalb County, Missouri, near my wife's family 80-acre farm. A search of news on the Post Rock project returned articles related to the financial aspects. A recent map shows a large number of large wind projects in Kansas that will not only generate safe, renewable energy, but also generate jobs.

About 100 people at the downtown Kansas City public library on Thursday, November 29 heard KCK mayor Joe Reardon and Kansas City Missouri mayor Sly James announce a new "Starter Internet" service offering by Time Warner. The low-cost service offering will provide families in nine school districts -- up to 85,000 students -- with a $10 per month 5 megabit per second Internet connection. James stated the "affordable option will allow them to compete in school" and that the joint effort could allow "every single student in this area to get a quality education." Extending Internet access to low-income families could "help bridge the digital divide," James added. The offering allows customers who relocate in the city to retain their Internet offering. Time Warner also announced that 14 locations throughout the city such as the River Market will gain "free" wifi hotspots for Time Warner customers. KCK high schools have provided each stu

KKFI's annual Holiday Online Auction started today, November 30. Bill Clause, the station's esteemed Special Events Coordinator, has been the busy elf gathering lots of goodies to offer to KKFI supporters. Some of the over 300 items available include "Auto maintenance; Jazz, Blues, Rock concert tickets; Theater tickets for Unicorn, Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, Coterie, and American Heartland Theatre; Gift Certificates to BBs Lawnside, Californos; RJ’s Bob-Be-Cue; Azteca Mexican Food; many more items." KKFI 90.1 FM's Online Holiday Auction Site This is one of the community radio station's most important fundraising activities of the year, so enjoy some online shopping and support KKFI. Bidding ends December 10, 2012.

Missouri Dept of Social Services chart showing current Medicaid (MO HealthNet) enrollment and expenses. (click image for full size) I attended a Local Investment Commission (LINC) meeting last week and listened to a detailed report on the Medicaid expansion options for Missouri under the Affordable Care Act. The expansion seems like a no-brainer option for Missouri with a significant increase in low-income people covered under health insurance. However, a Republican-controlled legislature in Missouri promises to make this a tough fight. As many as 300,000 people , mostly low-income families, would gain access to health care at a minimal cost to the state during the first five years of the expansion. Forget the anti-tax, "small government" talk, extending Medicaid coverage means an improved quality of life for lower-income people -- the most crucial element of the extension. Medicaid, as Brian Kinkade,  interim director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, i

There are strong advocates for low-income people writing for Kansas City major media outlets, such as Mary Sanchez for the Kansas City Star. Her writing on September 19, 2012 about the digital divide and the Google Fiber project is one example of this advocacy. In re-reading this article by Sanchez I noticed she highlighted "a little-publicized program begun in 2011 by the Federal Communications Commission. Households that qualify by poverty guidelines for free and reduced-price lunch at public schools can order Internet service by established providers such as Time Warner for about $10 a month and also buy low-cost computers." Then last week she wrote in depth about Time-Warner's "Starter Internet" service . Information about this program, available for low-income families with school-age children, will be shared in a "major announcement about a pilot project that will expand Internet accessibility..." The event will be held at 10:30 a.m. at the

Image of Google Map showing Vineyard Estates neighborhood The Vineyard Estates neighborhood on the east side of Kansas City, where the Harvesters food bank is located, reached its goal of pre-registering 10% of the residents for the Google Fiber service, along with 179 other KCK and Kansas City, Missouri neighborhood . The Google Fiber plans for residential locations range from $70 for high-speed Internet service to $120 for Internet plus cable TV per month. Since Harvesters is a business it will not eligible to be connected for service, according to the terms of service. And Google has not defined subscription rates for businesses yet. However, since Harvesters is a community organization it's likely to be wired along with "libraries, schools and community buildings in qualified fiberhoods," as stated in a Google report on the conclusion of the pre-registration effort. Harvesters is one of over 200 food banks in a nationwide network of food banks represented by F

I met up with a worker at a social service agency that directly serves residents to learn more about the challenges and operations of a food pantry, one that is served by Harvesters food bank. As a worker at a food bank I don't often get to interact with food pantry workers to understand the day-to-day difficulties of people seeking food assistance. I was a bit late for the meeting and called my acquaintance to notify him of my arrival. At the entrance I announced my visit to the front desk coordinator. About 20 people waited on chairs in the front lobby with me, some having checked in for a food pantry visit, others for employment consultation. The mostly white residents waited with a family member, perhaps a spouse or a child. One woman waiting in a wheel chair with a Chiefs coat -- it was cold this morning -- nervously shook her hand. A younger woman with a baby in a car-seat walked in after a man got up to hold the door open for her. My acquaintance gave me a quick tour,

Note: This document is an early draft of a business case to upgrade a volunteer management system. It is not intended to be a fully organized statement of requirements, but more of a collection of features and a document for discussion. Overview Harvesters, the Kansas City area food bank, would like to improve the capability of the Volunteer App, the volunteer management system used to schedule, track and recruit volunteers and groups.  The Volunteer Services department would also like to improve the efficiency and accuracy of volunteer management by adapting their processes with new features and functions from an updated application. The current, custom Microsoft Access-based system developed a few years ago provides a rich-featured, robust solution to track individuals and groups volunteering at Harvesters. The system tracks all volunteers working in the Volunteer Outreach Center, as well as those donating their time and skills for events and in departments throughout Ha

There has been a significant amount of attention focused on Google's latest project - Google Fiber. Recent reporting has focused on how the Google Fiber project will transform how we use the Internet, close the digital divide and otherwise elevate KC to a new level of human interaction. There is no doubt there are large numbers of consumers ready for the new "buffer-less" environment. By tempting, if not playing worthy outlets, for free access -- schools and libraries -- that it make it an easier product to sell. But a line of existing telecom providers -- some of the largest and most profitable multi-national companies are measuring the fairness to markets. Ensuring cable and phone companies are not left out of the right-of-way argument kept KCK from giving away something they charge these companies. In the early 1980's fresh out of college, I went to work for United Telephone System, which provided local land lines, was quite concerned about the governmen

Harvesters food bank in Kansas City kicked off a new project to provide unusable produce to Missouri Organic for their composting business. Prior to this initiative the food bank was disposing the rotten produce in the trash, which was destined for area landfills. The funding for the project was partially provided by a grant. The project included building a concrete pad behind the agency loading area to hold a dumpster, a garage door leading from the loading area to the pad, and a gravel drive leading to Topping Avenue. Harvesters pays Missouri Organic to transport the dumpster to their composting operation. Some of these photos depict the first dumpster provided to the composting business.

The best I can do today is share photos and a report from Jane Quinn on her field trip to Shatto Milk Company with her second grade class. I originally planned to join her but spent the day in Topeka for an agency conference for the area food bank. Jane grew up on a dairy farm near Amity, Missouri a few miles from the fast-growing Shatto Dairy in Osborn, Missouri. Shatto has 425 dairy cows milked twice a day, requiring 35 farm workers to handle the full operation of milking, milk production and bottling the product. The dairy has a 2000 gallon holding tank where they produce a variety of milk and cheese products that are available in local grocery stores. She has always maintained a fondness for farm life, especially the dairy farm variety. The farm she grew up on maintained a 50 dairy cow herd during the 1970's when she grew. She was eager to share the dairy farm on the field trip not only for Shatto's success at locally produced, small farm milk production but also f

Construction of the pad to hold a bin for composting is nearly complete. The pad and gravel driveway are on the back lot at Harvesters in KC. Megan FitzGerald with Harvesters described a new composting initiative to provide a large quantity of waste vegetables and fruit to Missouri Organic . The effort redirects waste from a dumpster destined for the landfill to an operation that will recycle the material for compost for backyard gardens. She described the project as an exciting community program -- one that both employees and volunteers are eager to support because it improves Harvesters' efforts at sustainability and the green movement. The project required significant planning to ensure the processing of waste met food safety guidelines, did not require an abnormal amount of labor, and did not require an initial cash outlay. A cross-functional Harvesters team developed the idea and worked with the fundraising department to find grant money to pay for construction. Mid-Am

KKFI 90.1 FM is significantly different from other area radio stations and programs that have a community focus, and this is the reason why I support the community radio station.  What makes KKFI different is that the hosts of several shows are active members of communities tapping into their networks or communities at a different level -- artists making art, musicians creating music, activists molding social action. Several radio shows on the KKFI feature topics and guests that are anchored in our local community, like "Eco Radio KC," produced by Steve Mann, active in the urban farming movement. And several music shows allow musicians to discuss and perform their music. In some cases the program host is a musician, like jazz musician Jeff Harshbarger, host of Jazz Afternoon on Wednesdays. Hosts of public affairs programs interview local government officials, community organization representatives, and activists for a variety of causes. One example, the "

I was anticipating a glitzy affair to spotlight the brightest ideas for exploiting the super-fast Google Fiber in KC. I was especially keen on proposals focusing on public or social needs, but with only an hour I was not able to see all the presentations. I sat in on the tail end of a presentation by Somametric, but only caught references to “audiences” and “biometrics,” so I did not gather information to assess it’s focus or innovation level. Image from live stream from the Think Big awards ceremony announcing winner of the contest. According to the Kansas City Star’s report of the award, the one presentation I listened in on was by high school students, which the reporter mentioned as the “most polished pitch." “They made a convincing argument about using the fat data pipe of Google’s coming fiber-optic lines to stream video in a cable-like service at a better price. Their yet-developed product, Hong, would note programs individual viewers watch to gauge their i

Georgia Walker with the Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas City facilitated a training session for emergency assistance agency representatives and supporters at the KC Salvation Army headquarters on January 18. Agencies included government organizations, schools, housing groups like Phoenix Family Housing, and counseling groups, to name a few. The session was attended by 50 or more individuals who will participate in the January 25, 2012 point-in-time count of people that are homeless in this area. Ms. Walker mentioned the count, like last year's count , was meant to discover “what are the needs in the community" in order to direct resources and services to the need. One example of the benefits of this discovery could be a new shelter dedicated for single, homeless women as reported in a Kansas City Star article this week. I met Pat Wilkins, Executive Director of the Greater Kansas City Housing Information Center, who noted an increase in housing requests an

While the news of a judge blocking the voter ID regulation in South Carolina is encouraging, a law requiring fingerprints for Food Stamp/SNAP application in New York is still on the books. Opponents of the voter ID laws claim these regulations are in violation of the Voting Rights Act because they target minorities, thus reducing their likelihood of voting. The voter ID regulations in South Carolina and other states are simply laws chasing fraud where it does not exist or is misguided because of the negligible number of cases. Simply put: these regulations, like the fingerprinting requirement, are targeting poor people in unjust ways. As the Food Research and Action Center noted in their recent news digest, a January 1, 2012 New York Times editorial argued for ending the practice of fingerprinting SNAP applicants. “Especially at a time when so many families are struggling, the Bloomberg administration should drop the [fingerprinting] requirement that leads to many New Yorke

"America I AM: The African American Imprint," an expansive exhibit on African American culture and history runs through January 29, 2012 , three weeks past the original schedule and overlapping the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. Discount tickets are available from the KPRS-FM 103.3 website. During a visit last week with my family, I was struck by the depth of history -- the large exhibit wound it's way through the viewing space featuring a subtle soundtrack composed of somber spirituals, rattling chains, and drums, among other sound effects. The exhibit recreated a slave ship and gates from a departure point in Africa, among other settings. Covering 500 years of history and culture through modern days, the exhibit not only reflected on slavery in the US but also throughout the Western Hemisphere, including Brazil, Cuba, and other areas. Many of the items in America I AM, provided a detailed text, such as the text documenting the successful slave revolt