© 2025 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A fight over staffing at Kansas nursing homes

New rules from the Biden administration will force most Kansas nursing homes to hire more staff, and owners aren’t happy. Plus: The USDA's new program SUN Bucks doles out $40 per month over the summer for each eligible child. However, 13 states turned down the funding.

By 2027, a majority of Kansas nursing homes will need to hire more staff to comply with new federal rules designed to reduce neglect. Nursing home owners say it could put them out of business. But as Rose Conlon of the Kansas News Service reports, advocates say the new rules don’t go far enough.

Summer break can be the hungriest time of the year for children who rely on free and reduced lunch at school. This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also rolled out a new program called SUN Bucks to provide eligible families $120 per child for groceries over the summer months. But Harvest Public Media’s Anna Pope reports that 13 states opted out of the program — leaving almost 10 million children without food benefits.

Contact the show at news@kcur.org. Follow KCUR on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Celia Morton, Byron Love, and KCUR Studios, and edited by Madeline Fox, Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate.

As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
Celia Morton is the KCUR Studios intern for summer 2024. Email her at cmorton@kcur.org.
As an on-demand producer, I am focused on using my skills and experiences across multiple digital applications, platforms and media fields to create community focused audio, video and on-demand products for KCUR Studios. The media that I produce aims to inform, entertain and connect with the Kansas City metro area as we continue to learn from each other. Email me at byronlove@kcur.org.
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.