Foundation Journal

The Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri  released a booklet offering "tips and strategies for linking food pantries and community partners to get healthier food onto the shelves of pantries and into the homes of food pantry customers" in January 2015. Download the 24-page PDF document for information on healthy nutritious food options.

I spoke with John Jones today about the food assistance programs at his organization. He’s the pastor of Faith in Christ Fellowship in Oak Grove, Missouri, which is a rural town of 8000 people just east of suburban Blue Springs near I-70. The organization started with a toiletry pantry, providing personal, household and cleaning supplies, but added food items in partnership with Harvesters food bank. He said they focused on toiletry items because he did not think the need for food was that great. Faith in Christ Fellowship serves 80 families each week, when they once only opened the pantry once a month. He’s noticed an increase in the number of visitors, especially low-income families whose income has not recovered with the end of the recession. He pointed out that people in the lower income levels have not seen their income return to pre-recession levels like many people in the top income brackets. According to US Census figures Oak Grove has a per capita income rate that is $6000 ...

It's easy to get reports on how the crisis around the Federal government shutdown impacts workers and families in the Kansas City area. Major news outlets have reports that talk about whether this or that agency is shutting down and furloughing workers. Many of these reports feature personal, first-hand accounts of the impact on how workers are making ends meet. KKFI 90.1 FM, the local community radio station, got in on the act this week  with a report from a furloughed USDA worker. What's harder to determine is the impact on programs that provide benefits to poor people or low-income workers. The federally-funded Women, Infants and Children (WIC) feeding program seems to be safe for now, but will lose funding if the government stays closed for long. Thanks to the Springfield News-Leader and St. Joe News-Press for local reporting on the WIC story in Missouri. The story in the News-Leader was inconclusive whether the shutdown would exhaust WIC benefits in Greene County i...

Produce is available from a mobile market with affordable prices as shown in this news report from July 2012. The route of the mobile market has expanded a bit since first starting up in July. Tuesdays The Jackson County Courthouse (415 East 12th Street, Kansas City, Mo) –  9 am – 12 pm Lucile Bluford Public Library (3050 Prospect Ave, Kansas City, Mo) – 12:30 pm -1:30 pm Tony Aguirre Community Center (2050 W. Pennway, Kansas City, Mo) – 2 pm – 3 pm Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City, Thornberry Unit (43rd and Cleveland, Kansas City, Mo) – 3:30 pm – 5 pm Thursdays The Jackson County Courthouse Annex (308 W. Kansas, Independence, Mo) –9 am – 10 am Fairmount Community Center – NW CDC (217 Cedar, Independence, Mo) – 10:30 am – 11:30 am Hillcrest Community Center (10401 Hillcrest Road)– 12 pm – 2 pm Samuel U. Rodgers (825 Euclid, Kansas City, Mo) – 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Southeast Community Center (4201 E. 63rd St.) – 4 pm – 5...

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, ...

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.

An annual report released in September 2011 by the US Census documented their findings on the growth of poverty in the US. The report reveals a startling -- though somewhat expected because the information reflects a prior year -- rise in the poverty rate. What the report does not reveal are the local, even personal, impact of poverty. Take Kansas City as an example. Ken at a Midtown Kansas City food pantry mentioned that over the past year he's seen "larger families" show up for food assistance, meaning unemployed members of a family are moving in together. Younger, 20-something children are moving back in with their parents, Ken mentioned. Perhaps predicting a future, even larger, decline in food assistance options, Ken mentioned some Missouri food pantries may be seeing funding cut for through the Community Service Block Grants.

Realm of the report is on a definition of food security based on the number of postitive responses to indicators of frequency of food consumption, affordability, quality, and quantity. Report reflects well-known demographics, specifically much higher prevalence of food insecurity among single women head of households (with children), Blacks, Hispanics, and in southern states. Statistics sometimes mask a true understanding by removing personal stories. USDA report taken with Feeding American's Hunger Study show common characteristics. Missouri rank in food insecurity has drastically increased in recent years, as has Kansas. This despite Missouri leading place of those applications for SNAP that are elgible. Immersed in Feeding America statistics showing 3 billion pounds of food distributed per year through the network of 200 US food banks. USDA shows 2.88 bill pounds distributed in 2000. TEFAP commondity accounts for 14% of food distributed through pantries. SNAP assists...

The USDA released it's annual report on food security on November 15, 2010. "The food security of U.S. households, when measured over the entire year, remained essentially unchanged from 2008 to 2009, with the prevalence of food insecurity at each level of severity remaining at the highest percentage observed since nationally representative food security surveys began in 1995."

Lance Morgan , the keynote speaker on October 7, 2010 during Feeding America's Central Region food bank conference in Omaha, outlined the economic development success on the Winnebago reservation. He stressed how Ho-Chunk Inc. and other businesses on the reservation transformed a community with 65% unemployment and widespread alcoholism into a "rural economic miracle." Morgan described how Ho-Chunk and other enterprises have not only contributed significantly to tribal programs, but offer a different approach to economic development, such as through it's low loan rates for rez cars and houses. The low rates have driven out predatory lenders for cars, a loan policy which has devastated many low income workers. This approach provided borrowers with the means to maintain jobs and "changed the landscape and what's possible in our world," Morgan stated. "It changed the whole dynamic within our community. Lance Morgan, speaking at Feedin...

“Lost your job” and “you make too much money for social security.” These are some of the comments I heard over the cubicle wall as Julie interviewed a client for the Hunger in America study today at the Samaritan Center in Clinton, Missouri. A woman was elaborating on her situation during some of the questions about her household’s income, food, and health condition. The woman was frustrated with her situation “trying to get disability insurance and wasted a lot of time and money in Warrensburg and Kansas City.” The building is an old single story building in the older part of Clinton with patterned-covered wallboard and a drop ceiling. Clients are able to visit the pantry once a month. They come in and schedule the next month’s visit, then go through the pantry. Conducting interviews involves a fair amount of waiting as clients come through for food. A random sample selects every fourth client today based on the estimate of the number of people seeking food. The goal is to get 10-...