The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. This can be a temporary situation for a family or can last a long time. Food insecurity is one way we measure how many people cannot afford food. According to Feeding America, more than 48 million people, including 14 million children experience food insecurity in the United States. Nearly one in five Kansas children do not have enough food to eat.

We are committed to addressing hunger and food insecurity through many solutions. When families come to Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, we connect them to Federal Nutrition Programs such as WIC and SNAP. Both of these programs allow families to purchase nutritious food for their families. We also administer the At-Risk Afterschool Meal and Summer Food programs, which provide nutritious meals and snacks to children when they are not in school. We also distribute commodities in Topeka and Wyandotte County and distribute senior commodities in Leavenworth, Lawrence and Wyandotte County. All of these programs are federally funded.

We operate eight food pantries in our 21-county service area. We strive to provide healthy food to families in need as a way to supplement their household food budget. With the rising cost of food we have seen a continual increase in people accessing our food pantries. We have had a saying at Catholic Charities “school’s out, food’s out” and that was certainly true this past summer. Our shelves were close to empty and we were not able to replace our inventory at a rate that kept adequate food on the shelves. We continue to purchase food but there is limited bulk to purchase and just like everyone, our dollar is not going as far. We depend on the generosity of food drives and donations to keep us stocked with shelf stable food. Will you join us in our mission of feeding our neighbors in need?