- [Announcer] "Flatland" is brought to you in part through the generous support of AARP and the Health Forward Foundation.

- Hi, I'm D. Rashaan Gilmore, welcome to "Flatland".

Every month we dig into one issue that's raising questions, causing tensions or has gone curiously unexplored in our area.

For this episode, we'll be talking about access to food in our community.

(bright upbeat music) 13% of Missourians and 12% of Kansans qualify as food insecure.

And while the increase in federal funding of assistance programs like food stamps, which are also known as SNAP has kept me afloat during the pandemic, nearly half of the program's 47,000 applicants in Missouri were rejected.

Let's take a look at how food insecurity affects our community and at some of the people stepping up to fill the gaps.

(soft upbeat music) - [Narrator] Any family can find themselves in either long-term or temporary situation where they just don't have the resources that they need to feed their families.

- Oh yeah, I have to roll to start but it's like a $250 part plus the time to get it fixed so, I can leave it running while we DoorDash as long as I have my partner with me but it is what it is.

(engine roaring) Yeah, I'm hoping to get it fixed soon but we had to just get our water turned back on and stuff like that, so.

- [Woman] So where I live is technically a food desert, a food desert is anything that a grocery store is further than one mile and not easy to get to.

- Family Dollar and Prospect in 75th Street, the closest place to buy food for this area down of 71 Highway.

The bread section is pretty well picked over.

So the cheapest thing that you're gonna be able to get is the $1.35 but delivery day is Wednesday, so that's the only reason there's bread on the shelf.

Everything else is gonna be $3.25, $2.25.

This is two miles, two and a half miles.

To get here you're gonna have to either have a car or a bus with no kids.

$1.25 for the same product that was at Family Dollar for $3.25.

And you have say $300 of food stamps, you're only gonna get $100 worth of food if you rely on going to Family Dollar or the gas station and stuff like that versus being able to get to a grocery store.

- That really is the first defense against hunger and food insecurity in the United States.

During COVID, we saw a lot of new people seeking assistance.

- It seems pretty simple.

It's actually, isn't too hard of the paperwork to fill out.

Biggest problem is stuff gets mailed out.

And so a lot of times people don't even get the paperwork until the deadline.

You know, I had a client who called, they told them it was a three hour wait and they ended up waiting like five hours.

That's like an entire Workday.

The majority of people on food stamps have been working.

So it's been the working, disabled and children.

So you're seeing like these people who are working, who need it, who can't get it because they are so busy with the rest of their lives.

- And I got a raise of 25 cents an hour so, it was about, it took me up to like $10.50 or $10.75 total.

And they determined that that was too much of a raise and they took away all of our food stamps because we made over the income limit.

And a 50 cent raise over a month is not gonna justify losing $400 or whatever of food stamps.

- I'm still on benefits, I've been on benefits for about, since my son was born, he's six going on seven.

I have had lot of jobs that I've had to quit, just so that I could receive the benefits.

- You're made to feel like you're not poor enough or you're not in need enough or that you should feel guilty but then you're also restricted from genuinely succeeding and improving your life because you have to cap everything or you're gonna lose your food.

I wish people would understand that if you know, you start in poverty, sure, there's like the random, hey, I made it story but the reality is especially like with us, with a disabled child, we're probably never going to be out of poverty.

Like it just it's not set up that way because even to keep his disability assistance, we have to keep our income low enough.

- Some people work really hard all day every day and they still have food insecurities and they still can't provide something simple as food.

- We go through a lot of the microwave, macaroni and cheese bowls.

Store brand's gonna be almost $4.

- And then once they have those available to them, what is available to them?

Are they healthy?

We all know that we probably should eat more fruits and vegetables and be more physically active but what are those barriers that are in front of us that cause us not to be able to do that?

- Unhealthy processed food is oftentimes more accessible and cheaper and more affordable than the healthier foods that we're trying to give our patients.

It runs entirely with obesity.

They will also then be more at risk for diabetes, for hypertension, for the down the line heart attacks, strokes, things of that nature.

So you end up being stuck in this perpetuating cycle then.

You find yourself treating people only to send them back to the conditions that made them sick in the first place.

Very rarely does food insecurity run solo.

You know, it's often a number of other social determinants that kind of run together.

They would also have employment issues, they would also have housing insecurity as well.

Unless those things were addressed, we wouldn't really be able to help them reach their health goals.

And interestingly, so it's children more than adults that tend to be more food insecure.

So if we're truly trying to be patient centered, then really working with them and trying to make sure that not only do they have access to food but have access to healthy food as well as we're trying to get them connected to resources.

- Up to 52% of produce grown in our country never reaches a human consumer.

What industry allows more than half of its of its product to go to waste?

If something gets graded out at the retail level, say a truck full of corn arrives at Walmart and Walmart rejects that truck for any reason, it could be that a truck load could have 10% waste but that means 90% of that food is perfectly good to eat.

And that's gonna go to the landfill.

That's the kind of obscene waste you see in our country.

That's a major component of the work of After The Harvest.

We rescued about 501,000 pounds of fresh produce through our gleaning program last year.

And we're going to save one million pounds this year.

We work with agencies, pantries, food banks.

We work almost exclusively with Harvesters which is the community food bank in this region because they have the best distribution methods in our region.

- This year, we're on track to rescue 350,000 pounds of food.

Our goal for next year is 500,000 pounds.

We use about 40% of the food that we rescue here at Kansas Community Kitchen.

It's not enough just to feed people, you have to nourish them.

Every meal that we serve is nutritionally balanced.

It's made from scratch.

It's served hot.

- Jalapeno or pepper?

- Oh, no, no, no.

No- - Oh, okay.

- [Woman] The other 60% we're sharing with about six other neighborhood pantries throughout the city.

There's food available, we just need to get it from where it is to where people need it.

- Welcome back to the discussion portion of our program today.

With us in studio is Emily Brown, Founder and CEO of The Food Equality Initiative.

Skye Dawn, a student, parent and recipient of SNAP benefits.

Karen Seibert, Public Policy and Advocacy Advisor for Harvesters and Lisa Ross SNAP Education Coordinator with Kansas State University.

So before we get into the causes of food insecurity and the solutions to the problem, I'd like to ask our guests Skye, what is it like to experience uncertainty around having food on the table?

- I have a special needs son who's six and I support him financially.

So we have always been pretty dependent on food services and we live actually in Jackson County.

So I lived down by 71 and it's a big food desert.

And so getting food, especially through COVID out here was really difficult because all of the grocery stores that were close enough would be wiped out.

And so, it meant a lot of times like, I would just eat rice and tuna and then the preferred foods would go to our kiddo so that he could have what he preferred versus we could just eat the same thing every day but it's a constant struggle.

And the thing that I try and remind people of is everybody with COVID is bulk buying groceries but they need to remember that people like me or other recipients of EBT and WIC, can't just bulk buy those.

There needs to be something over the winter for us to be able to buy and it's hard for people I think, to understand that.

- Do you feel stigmatized or judged when, you mentioned EBT, when you pull out an EBT card, or you mentioned that you get SNAP benefits or maybe a mother who is in the WIC Program for Women Infants and Children, what is that experience like?

Have you had any of those experiences?

- It is so hard because I would have a special needs.

My son is autistic so, you know, he was done with the store within 15 minutes.

I would be wearing him on me.

And you're trying to separate your transaction into like four separate piles, one for each check.

And it finally got to a point where I was just so embarrassed that if anybody got in line, I would just feel like, hey, I'm using WIC so, it's probably gonna be a while.

And it's just, you've already been there forever and you have a kid with you and it just, it is the most degrading thing to try and get through.

I do understand though that I believe WIC has cards now and I think that makes it a lot easier than it was when I was on WIC.

- Thank you for sharing that very personal experience.

And I just wonder, you mentioned the pandemic and Karen Seibert to you I turn, I know that Harvesters was born decades ago out of another crisis of our times then.

And they say necessity is the mother of invention.

What was the cause for the creation of Harvesters?

And do you see much of a distinction between the challenges that you faced when you started and where we are today in the COVID pandemic, where we saw long lines, miles long lines of families trying to get access to food?

- Yes, well, Harvesters was started over 40 years ago and it was during the oil crisis and interest rates were sky high.

Gas prices you know, there were lines for getting gas.

You can only get gas on odd days of the week and that kind of thing.

And what we saw is that at that point, when people were struggling, they went to their local churches for support and those faith leaders were overwhelmed with the need.

And they said, we have to do something.

And at the same time they saw grocery stores throwing away perfectly good food.

And so, the faith community went to the business leaders and said, could we take some of this food that you're just gonna throw in the landfill anyway and give it to people who are in need?

And the grocery industry said, that's great but we can't manage this.

Like we can't vet who should be getting this food, where it should go to and that kinda thing.

So if you set up a system, we'll provide that food to you.

So that's how Harvesters was created, sort of to be that middle man between the faith community and the business community to get those resources, to create that network of pantries that we know are good and solid folks and then get those resources out to the people who need them.

- What would you say Karen is the average family or individual that comes to Harvesters?

Is there such thing as an archetype or are we seeing that it's really something that is across the board and it doesn't matter if you're living in the depths of what I grew up calling the hood or if you live in the suburbs?

- Food insecurity is everywhere, it has every demographic, so many people think about the homeless person in line at the shelter.

That's very small number of the people who turn to us for help.

It's in Suburbia, it's in Johnson County, it's in rural areas and you know, they have their own food desert issues.

It really is everywhere, every color, different communities have higher food insecurity rates and maybe suffer that at a greater rate but it is literally everywhere.

- Lisa Ross, as the SNAP Education Coordinator at K State, I'm sure that you look at this issue of food accessibility, food insecurity from a pretty wide sort of purview.

And I just have a question around, what do you feel is the balance of the roles between charity as Karen mentioned, but also the role of government and public policy to help stem the tide around this issue?

- Yeah, I think there's a need for the charitable food pantries and those types of things because SNAP benefits don't always get people through the month and that's an issue that we need to talk about.

Making sure that those families that are needing that government assistance can get through that month.

But they're reaching to those charitable units such as Harvesters, food banks, their faith based communities to make sure that they have the food to provide to their families.

And there's a lot of things that go into that and it's not just you know, there's do they have a living wage?

Do they have a job that can get them through there?

And most of the SNAP recipients are working.

And so, it's really important that we have other safety nets because SNAP and WIC and all of those things aren't everything that a family needs to get them through the month to feed their families healthfully and make sure that no one in that family is hungry.

- I think, when we look at addressing food insecurity, we also have to look at this as a health issue because there's so many conditions, particularly chronic conditions that are impacted by diet and either can prevent the onset of these conditions or can help manage these diseases.

And you know, that's kind of the world that Food Equality Initiative plays in.

You know, we support patients with food allergies and celiac disease who are experiencing food insecurity because that special dietary need is critical to the management of those conditions.

There there's one FDA approved therapeutic treatment for peanut allergy alone.

And there is no therapeutic treatments for celiac disease.

How you manage the condition is by having the right foods at the right time.

And so, I think now more than ever, as we address food insecurity, there is this innovation and excitement and movement toward not just giving people food but giving them the right food.

And so, I think as a whole food assistance organizations are really working to kind of move beyond just pushing out any food and kind of what I believe are volume-based outcomes to really dealing with the values of the recipients of the food.

- So let me jump on and ask you about something.

So what should be the metric for if it's not volume of food out the door, the weight and number of boxes of food that go to individual families, what should be the metric or metrics by which we are determining that we're making real progress here?

- It should be, did we meet the needs of the individuals who asked us for help?

Did we give them the food that they needed and that they wanted by giving people the dignity of choice that they can always choose the items that they are receiving, we're not pre-packing boxes.

And we align our, you know, we've always aligned our procurement you know, what we purchase and ensure it's instantly available to the people we served aligned with the things that they actually need.

And you know, that they guide our work.

- Often we hear that you know, they just people who receive assistance for food should make healthier choices.

You know, people say they're hungry and the first thing people wanna do is throw a bunch of kale at them or something but organic and healthy foods are often much more expensive than processed foods that are heavily subsidized.

Do you find that even to make those healthier food options, if you're not given as Emily said, the dignity of choice, which is so beautifully phrased, do you feel like you're at this strange and position where you can't really win for losing?

- By allowing that dignity of choice, I only get a set amount of food stamps every month.

And if I use that all on like really expensive steak, I'm not gonna have any money for the rest of the month.

And it is harder to eat healthier when you're poor because like my family, we homeschool our son because he has so many doctor's appointments.

So most of what we eat is to go food.

It is one Lunchables, it's pre-made sandwiches and stuff like that.

And you can only get so healthy and it might be cheaper to cook whole meals but you know, when a day that we're gone 12 hours, there's no time.

And it's just really difficult to spread that out because pre-packaged is a little more expensive.

It's way more expensive if you get healthy.

And if we're buying lobster all month, we got three lobsters for the month.

- Every month on our website, we answer your questions about life and Kansas City and the issues you care about through our CuriousKC Initiative.

Let's hear from our community reporter Vicki Diaz Camacho about our question of the month.

- This month's CuriousKC question comes from Teri.

She asked, what are the locations of food pantries and how easy are they to access for people without transportation?

- It's very difficult if you are disabled or if say you're a grandparent with five kids and you don't have a car to get to a food pantry.

Taking a bus there is going to be really, really difficult.

And so, if you don't have a method to get to a food pantry, you're going to still be met with that challenge of getting that food to you whether that be senior, children, disabled.

And so, my long-term goal is to hopefully be able to help set up a volunteer delivery drop-off program where we can get that food to people.

- If there are people in need of assistance and they are looking for a pantry, they can go to Harvesters website at harvesters.org.

The very top navigation, it actually says, Get Food Assistance and just click on that and go to the food locator and you can put in your zip code either you're the one by your home and look for the pantries in your area or if you wanna find one by your work, if that's more convenient and it'll just give you the list of all the Harvesters' pantries in that area with the hours that they have available.

We do encourage people always to call ahead of time.

We have a phone number on there to make sure that the pantry is open 'cause so many of our pantries are relying on volunteers and especially during the holidays, the hours can change.

So we want people to make sure that that they're open before they go over there but you can find all of Harvesters' agencies on there.

We have over 760 agencies throughout our service area.

So hopefully there's some just about every neighborhood.

- Karen, just briefly to you.

I know that we have as a country been experiencing as a globe for that matter the supply chain challenges, has that on a very micro level, when it comes to getting food out to families, has there been an impact on you?

And again, to that CuriousKC question from one of our viewers that was submitted.

How hard or how easy is it for the families that you serve to get access to this food as just a practical matter, as a logistical matter?

- First of all, with the supply chain issues, we did see very significant challenges for the food bank.

At the time you know, when we had the shutdowns, we saw the need go up 40, 50%.

And so, we had so many more people turning to us for help.

At the same time, our donations dried up.

You know, we had food drives, we had a food drive scheduled at The Big 12 Tournament, it was canceled.

We didn't get any food.

You know, all the food drives that we had scheduled.

And then we rely on donations from the food industry.

So we get the excess at the grocery store.

Well, there was no excess at the grocery store, there were bare shelves.

So we were not getting those donations.

So we had to actually go out and purchase food.

And we were so fortunate that we have such great support in the community and that we were able to do that but we could not get food.

We could not find the food to purchase because you know, it was six to eight weeks out before we could get a truckload of food in.

There was food available through the food industry, through distributors and those kinds of things 'cause what happened is approximately 40% of the food that people eat were eating before the pandemic was done outside the home, in restaurants, in corporate cafeterias, and events, well, all of that stopped.

And so, there were things like huge bags of salad greens, normally that would be great for Harvesters, we'd bring it over and we'd have volunteers go through it and re-bag that and make family sized bags of salad, put nutrition information on it and get it out the door.

But we couldn't have volunteers in the building.

So all of those systems that we had set up really constrained us a lot.

And that is normalizing a bit, we have volunteers back in the building, we have a better supply chain but there's still issues.

You know, we can now get food but it's probably two to four weeks out.

The challenge has not actually been that there's not enough food but it's not in the right place and in the right form of where people need it.

And like now we're seeing issues of aluminum cans shortages.

And even if they can get the aluminum cans, they can't get the labels for the food.

So those are the kinds of things we're seeing and we're just trying to, every day, it's an adjustment of what we can do.

And that we're also all seeing the prices rise, which is affecting everyone.

It's affecting the food bank when we purchase food and it's affecting everyone who comes to us for help.

Their SNAP dollars don't go quite as far either.

- From a public policy perspective, what is the best advice you have for policymakers about how we can really eradicate food insecurity in America?

- Well, I think government policies including those like determining access to those services, to you know, getting to the food banks or how their food dollars are spent and those types of things, even like school lunches and SNAP benefits and all of those things, I think we really need to take a really good look at those and make sure that there aren't barriers that are holding back our participants from getting to those.

You know, even as simple as application processes to get SNAP benefits, I mean, it's complicated and those who are applying for those, some of them are elderly.

Some of them are adult individuals, some with families, but it's a hard process to get through.

And so, policies that eliminate those barriers to the access and to the food really need to be reassessed and looked at.

- Very good and Emily to you, a somewhat difficult question, but I feel like it's one I'm confident that you can handle.

What is your vision of a food secure Kansas City?

- I believe a food secure Kansas City really takes public private partnership.

I believe it takes all stakeholders working together, especially engaging those who are closest to the problem, those with lived experiences like Skye or even myself because I believe those can have that lived experience and are close to the problem are closest to the solution, - May I just say that each of you inspires me not only by the work that you're doing but by the stories that you shared.

And that's where we wrap up the conversation for this episode of "Flatland".

That's Park University's student, Skye Dawn.

CEO of Food Equality Initiative, Emily Brown.

Harvesters Public Policy Advisor, Karen Seibert.

And SNAP Education Coordinator, Lisa Ross.

You can find additional information and reporting on food insecurity in our region at flatlandsshow.org where you can also submit your CuriousKC question for next month's topic.

This has been "Flatland", I'm D. Rashaan Gilmore.

Thank you for the pleasure of your time, until next time, bye-bye.

- [Announcer] "Flatland" is brought to you in part through the generous support of AARP and the Health Forward Foundation.

(soft upbeat music)