“You want a plate, hon?” Nourish KC kitchen volunteer Betsy Chase said as she bobbed and weaved through packed tables of people lining up for a plate of fried chicken, salad, potatoes and strawberry cake Friday. She sprayed down tables, cleaned up plates and stopped to smile at every person she could see in the kitchen.”Maybe you’d like to take some food for later?” she said to a small child. Nourish KC at 750 Paseo is always packed at lunchtime. The organization feeds 500 people every day for free at its down-the-stairs location. News of the United States Department of Agriculture cutting $500 million in federal funds to food banks came as a shock to Harvesters in Kansas City, Missouri, which partners with 900 agencies to provide free meals and food goods to anyone who needs them.Harvesters Chief Resource Officer Elizabeth Keever said, “So we got this email on, late in the day Tuesday, and it really showed us what was coming that we now know is, is no longer. So, we’ve got things like two shipments of eggs each, 750 cases canceled cheese, 600 and 825 cases canceled.” Keever is imploring the USDA to reconsider and the public to help. “What we’re going to do moving forward is really work with the community to share the need and advocate to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to prevent any other cuts and really advocate that we need these programs to be returned,” she said. Nourish KC was notified Tuesday by Harvesters there would be no April delivery of around 20,000 pounds of food. Executive Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant said it was a total surprise. “It’s about to be huge. And it’s not just huge on me. There’s a lot of other people in that Harvesters network that are just like me,” McAfee-Bryant said. “And so what’s going to happen is, is that the population is going to travel to where they can get the most resources. What that will be, I don’t know, but I will find something to put on there because we have families. There’s kids. People who come here and they need, they rely on this food. And I cannot have the parents and the kids and the seniors coming down here, and there’s nothing for them to get.” The federal food bank monies being cut are TEFAP funds — The Emergency Food Assistance Program funds. McAfee-Bryant said she has always been a creative chef, but one can only stretch a dollar so far. “There’s going to be something here. And I’m not going to diminish the services that I’m offering,” she said. “So maybe the people in the community will get tired of seeing my face on the news or on social media or doing something, but we are not going to lessen the services that we provide here because they need it. This is more than just a meal for a lot of people.”
“You want a plate, hon?” Nourish KC kitchen volunteer Betsy Chase said as she bobbed and weaved through packed tables of people lining up for a plate of fried chicken, salad, potatoes and strawberry cake Friday.
She sprayed down tables, cleaned up plates and stopped to smile at every person she could see in the kitchen.
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“Maybe you’d like to take some food for later?” she said to a small child.
Nourish KC at 750 Paseo is always packed at lunchtime. The organization feeds 500 people every day for free at its down-the-stairs location.
News of the United States Department of Agriculture cutting $500 million in federal funds to food banks came as a shock to Harvesters in Kansas City, Missouri, which partners with 900 agencies to provide free meals and food goods to anyone who needs them.
Harvesters Chief Resource Officer Elizabeth Keever said, “So we got this email on, late in the day Tuesday, and it really showed us what was coming that we now know is, is no longer. So, we’ve got things like two shipments of eggs each, 750 cases canceled cheese, 600 and 825 cases canceled.”
Keever is imploring the USDA to reconsider and the public to help.
“What we’re going to do moving forward is really work with the community to share the need and advocate to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to prevent any other cuts and really advocate that we need these programs to be returned,” she said.
Nourish KC was notified Tuesday by Harvesters there would be no April delivery of around 20,000 pounds of food. Executive Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant said it was a total surprise.
“It’s about to be huge. And it’s not just huge on me. There’s a lot of other people in that Harvesters network that are just like me,” McAfee-Bryant said. “And so what’s going to happen is, is that the population is going to travel to where they can get the most resources. What that will be, I don’t know, but I will find something to put on there because we have families. There’s kids. People who come here and they need, they rely on this food. And I cannot have the parents and the kids and the seniors coming down here, and there’s nothing for them to get.”
The federal food bank monies being cut are TEFAP funds — The Emergency Food Assistance Program funds.
McAfee-Bryant said she has always been a creative chef, but one can only stretch a dollar so far.
“There’s going to be something here. And I’m not going to diminish the services that I’m offering,” she said. “So maybe the people in the community will get tired of seeing my face on the news or on social media or doing something, but we are not going to lessen the services that we provide here because they need it. This is more than just a meal for a lot of people.”
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