food availability

Kansas City area school districts are connecting families with food, clothing and other resources after the federal shutdown exacerbated their financial strain.

Food bank staff expect a wave of new demand as millions of Americans are set to lose federal food assistance in November. But they insist that their services alone won't be enough to feed everyone who relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Democrats and Republicans have different proposals to keep feeding hundreds of thousands of Kansans. Food banks are preparing for an influx of demand.

More than 100 rural grocery stores in Kansas closed their doors from 2008 to 2018. But an initiative that invests in rural communities is keeping small groceries afloat.

Over the summer, hundreds of thousands of meals were distributed by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Researchers and grocery stores say the Republican-backed law, which will reduce federal food benefits, only makes it harder for markets to survive because the profit margins are already so low.

State lawmakers must soon decide whether to cover the extra costs to provide food assistance. If they don’t, food banks and pantries alone can’t make up the difference.

The Trump Administration is asking states to more closely watch the citizenship status of people receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But some advocates for immigrant families worry the messaging could hurt people who are eligible for the food assistance.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins gave a first-ever approval for a state to restrict what's covered by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during a visit to Nebraska this week. Other states, including Kansas, Iowa and Indiana, are seeking similar waivers.

Thousands of schools, farmers and food pantries in the Midwest and Great Plains planned on federal dollars over the next year to support local food purchases. And then the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut the programs.