As the holiday season nears, food pantries across the Kansas City area are facing similar struggles: food prices are going up, the number of families in need has not gone down and funds are dwindling.
Zach Sellers is operations director for Jewish Family Services’ food pantries. He says the COVID-19 pandemic "really brought in a lot of government funding" — which is now disappearing. To make matters worse, usually reliable sources, like Harvesters, have limited supplies.
Sellers says about 30 turkeys arrived at JVS's Brookside pantry for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. While he's glad to have them, Sellers says that doesn't come close to meeting the needs of his clients.
"We serve about 800 families, " he said, "so it goes, it goes pretty quickly."
- Zach Sellers, director of KesherKC Pantry operations for Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City
