Finding Their Next Meal
Whether breakfast, lunch, or dinner, many of us are blessed to not have to worry about from where our next meal will come. All we have to do is open the refrigerator, run to the grocery store, or even pull up a mobile ordering app to have our food delivered to our front door.
However, for thousands of families in Kansas City, the expectation that food will be there when it’s needed most is a luxury they don’t have. In a land of plenty, they suffer from food insecurity.
The US Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as, “lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.” While you might think of it as simply a fancier term for hunger, the reality is hunger can be a fleeting feeling. Everyone has experienced the growling stomach before sitting down for a bit to eat. People suffering from food insecurity hunger for both sustenance and the financial resources to provide food in a household.
“Food in an insecurity wherever there is poverty,” said Tracie Smith with The Salvation Army Kansas and Western Missouri Divisional Social Services department. “As people struggle to make ends meet, food is often shorted when it comes to needing to pay the bills.”
The Salvation Army in Kansas City is committed to providing a way to break food insecurity for families across the metro area. All eight of the community center corps locations operate a food pantry. Each pantry provides access to canned food, non-perishable boxed food, and occasionally frozen meats.
While the pantries are visited often throughout the year, during the summer months, families find themselves relying on the available food more and more, for one simple reason: summer vacation.
School-age children who would receive lunch, and often breakfast, during the school day are suddenly missing that guaranteed meal. So, families are forced to make difficult choices when it comes to food and other necessities. Between June and August in 2018, Salvation Army food pantries provided food to more than 3000 people in Kansas City alone.
“We don’t want people to have to make those decisions, and by receiving help at one of our food pantries, many times, families are able to put food on the table,” Smith said.
To meet that additional demand, however, The Salvation Army needs your help. This May, anyone “CAN” be a superhero by donating to your local Salvation Army location food pantry. Just click here to find a community center corps in your community.