Harvesters

Kansas City community kitchens are seeing higher demand as food prices remain high and COVID-19 assistance disappears. The food bank Harvesters is focusing on rescuing food waste as one way to shore up its supplies as demand rises, and donations are down.

The holiday break can be difficult for families who rely on schools to provide meals, shelter and other resources to their kids. Schools around the Kansas City area started planning early so kids would be taken care of.

Mayors, senators, hospitals, zoos — everyone’s getting into the mix, with cheesesteaks, barbecue, and Poor Richard’s Almanack at stake.

After 20 years with the community food bank and nine years as president and CEO, Valerie Nicholson-Watson is retiring from Harvesters Community Food Network.

Schools around Kansas City have been able to provide meals to thousands of children for free, regardless of their family’s income, thanks to federal legislation passed during the pandemic. Now, districts are worried that Congress will let those waivers expire.

Food pantries in the metro are seeing more clients than ever, but generous donations are helping them meet the demand. They also say it could be at least two years before families get back to where they were before the pandemic began.

Gov. Mike Parson stopped all federal pandemic-related unemployment programs, effective June 12, in the hopes of incentivizing people to return to the workforce.

For households with kids, the percentage who didn't know where their next meal was coming from jumped from 13.6 to 28 percent since the coronavirus struck.

The coronavirus saw food insecurity for households with children rise 15 points and the Kansas City woman giving fatigues worn by service members new purpose.

Local food bank Harvesters donated nearly 7 million pounds of food in the month of October — the most in its 40 year history.

Just a few months ago, food insecurity was said to be at its lowest point since before the Great Recession.

The coronavirus pandemic is increasing food insecurity among young people, and a new podcast now out on NPR explores a family operation generating millions of likes, follows and dollars in the name of gun rights.