Editor’s note: This solutions journalism article is part of a series of stories called “Feeding Solutions” about efforts to address hunger and health issues in Kansas.
It can be easy to overlook Syracuse.
The only sizable town in Hamilton County has just one school, one grocery store and one stoplight. But there’s one thing this community just east of the Colorado border has far too much of: food insecurity.
A community needs assessment revealed, “We had a lot of people that were food insecure,” said Lora Horton, director of K-State Extension Hamilton County.
County Commissioner Andy Coleman was surprised by what the needs assessment showed.
“To be honest, I didn’t realize the sheer numbers of people affected (by food insecurity) especially children,” Coleman said.
In hindsight, however, the evidence was in plain sight.
“I see the people that are using the food pantry, and I’m like, ‘Really? They don’t need it’ because they have good jobs,” Coleman said, “but their kids are the ones that really need it.”
The children of Hispanics make up the majority of students in Hamilton County, Horton said, and two-thirds of the students qualify for free or reduced lunches.
Credit: Jeff Tuttle
There are only about 2,500 people in Hamilton County, but K-State Extension reports there are about 125,000 head of cattle, including more than 31,000 dairy cows. Hamilton County leads the state in dairy production.
Those dairy jobs are being done by young, working-class families who have to stretch to make ends meet. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, an increase in federal funding allowed the Hamilton County Food Pantry to receive commodities every month from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But when the COVID-related funding ended in 2022, the USDA distribution schedule returned to every other month. While the distribution diminished, the need did not. The demand for food assistance in Hamilton County remained high, creating a gap that local programs and partners struggled to fill.
The state Department for Children and Families (DCF) bases its level of support on the number of families that are signed up for SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and Horton knew there were a lot of local families eligible for the program who had not signed up for it.
When local officials compared the usage of commodities through the Hamilton County Food Pantry, the number of students in USD 494 receiving free or reduced-price lunches, and the number of households enrolled in SNAP, they realized there were many families who qualified for SNAP but were not enrolled.
There was no location in the county where residents could receive help completing the SNAP application.
When she talked to officials about how to bridge that gap, “They were wanting people to come to Garden City, which is an hour one-way,” Horton said. “A lot of our low-resource families, they are a one-vehicle family, and it goes to work at the dairy, which is not in Syracuse, and they work 12-hour shifts.”
On top of all that, Garden City is in the Central Time zone and Syracuse is in the Mountain Time zone. Add it all up, and “it’s almost impossible to be able to go to Garden City and do the sign-up,” Horton said.
Credit: Jeff Tuttle
Enrolling can be done online, but “it’s not like we have a coffee bar or something where you can get free Wi-Fi,” she said. “That does not exist here. When the library is open, you can go and use a computer that’s available with Wi-Fi, but that’s about your extent (of access).”
For a lot of low-resource families, their phone is their only digital resource, and the application to apply for SNAP is 16 pages long. Applying for other services through DCF is another 10 pages.
A significant factor in the USDA’s formula for calculating how much a county is eligible for in food assistance is how many people are signed up for SNAP. Hamilton County’s demand for food was outstripping what they were officially eligible to receive.
“We started looking into how we can build our capacity,” Horton said.
Credit: Jeff Tuttle
‘The perfect time’
One step was applying for — and receiving — a Hunger Free Kansas mini-grant from the Kansas Health Foundation through the K-State Extension Service, which was used to purchase iPads and hire a part-time translator.
“The grant came at the perfect time” for Hamilton County, Horton said. “It pushed us (to do more) and we have grown a lot.”
They went around the county and helped families sign up for SNAP using the iPads. In six months, the number of people on SNAP increased 18%.
Horton was able to elicit donations to pay for a commercial freezer, which led to the launch of a cull cow program, in which area ranchers can donate a cow that is processed into ground beef for the food pantry.
Horton also began networking with local hunters to let them know if they bagged a deer but did not want the meat, the Kansas Hunters Feed the Hungry program would pay for processing the venison, which would then be donated to the pantry.
“Then I get more ground meat,” Horton said. Sustainable protein for a food pantry “is a game-changer.”
The Kansas Food Bank has opened a satellite warehouse in Garden City, and recently added a refrigerated truck to transport perishable food around the region. The increased SNAP numbers in Hamilton County translate into more food for low-resource families, Horton said.
All of these measures combined to overwhelm the food pantry, located in the old hospital’s basement, which is so small a new commercial freezer and commercial refrigerator had to be placed in a hallway.
The growth in both demand and resources persuaded the Hamilton County Commission to approve moving the food pantry to vacant office space downtown between the Hamilton County Health Department and the pharmacy. The commission also provided $11,000 to remodel the space. The renovation included removing walls, repainting, upgrading the electrical system for commercial refrigeration, and replacing carpeting with easy‑to‑sanitize flooring.
The Syracuse High School basketball teams and local 4-Hers were among the volunteers who put up new shelves and transferred food from the old pantry to the new location. The relocation isn’t so much a culmination, Horton said, as a new beginning.
“This work has taught me that rural communities are incredibly resourceful when we come together,” she said. “Hamilton County doesn’t have a lot of formal services, but we have strong relationships, and that has been our greatest asset. We’ve built a system that gets food to families who need it — consistently and with dignity.
“Solving food insecurity isn’t just about distributing food. It’s about listening to families, reducing barriers like transportation, and building long-term capacity so the work continues beyond any single grant.”
Credit: Jeff Tuttle
Recognizing the need
The stress on the local food network only figures to increase, area officials say. Fullmer Cattle Co., which does custom calf raising for dairy and beef herds, “is growing by leaps and bounds,” Coleman said.
The Syracuse food pantry does not receive funding from any government sources, and Anita Bezona — a pantry volunteer who delivers food to families and performs countless other as-needed tasks –- admits she likes it that way.
“We can make our own decisions” on how to allocate what resources they acquire, Bezona said. While the Kansas Food Bank has regulations, she added, “we’re still not tied down real bad” by them.
The Hunger Free Kansas grant showed the value of having a bilingual staff member working with the pantry, Coleman said, and he will advocate for the position to continue with a new source of funding once the grant monies run out.
The grant opened his eyes to “the need we have, and the eagerness of people in Hamilton County to jump on board and help,” Coleman said.
The larger pantry has local officials thinking bigger too. Because it’s located between the pharmacy and the health department, “ideally, we could be a setup where they can come to the food bank, but while they’re here take care of several other things as well, like a wellness check while they’re in town,” Bezona said.
The pantry has the space now to offer other basic necessities such as toiletries and feminine hygiene products, Bezona said.
Families with limited resources often have to decide what to skimp on — or skip altogether.
“I don’t care what nationality you are, it’s a mom thing, and you will put yourself last, because you’ve got to take care of your babies first,” she said.
New ways to generate support for the pantry are being tried, too. Parishioners at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Syracuse wanted to do something for the pantry during Lent 2026. Parishioners selected recipe cards from 14 options, collected all the ingredients needed for those meals, and then placed them in bags or boxes for delivery to the pantry.
“That’s something I’ve never done before,” Horton said, “but we’ll see how it works. If this model works, then that’s a new area we’ll pursue.”
In all, 97 bags were donated, according to parish secretary Kristi Ochs.
“It’s a whole meal in a bag,” Ochs said. Families can read what’s in each bag, “and go, ‘Oh, that sounds good’ and take it home.”
The idea has proved so popular that the parish will do it again next Christmas and perhaps Lent 2027 as well.
“I think this is working so well because there’s so many people that want to help, but don’t know how,” Ochs said. “This makes it easy.”
Seeing through the food pantry’s transformation, Horton said, has made her even more committed to strengthening partnerships and building sustainable solutions.
“Rural families deserve the same access to healthy food and support as anyone else,” she said, “and this work has shown me that with collaboration and persistence, we can make that a reality.”
The story previously appeared on The Journal.
Copyright 2026 High Plains Public Radio.
