(bright music) - Welcome to "Inspire," and we thank you for joining us.

Today we're examining a serious topic of food insecurity and food deserts.

Food insecurity in the Sunflower State, coming up next on "Inspire," come with us.

(gentle chime music) - [Announcer] "Inspire" is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart, using furniture to inspire conversation, and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.

The Friends of KTWU, honored to support programs and services that enrich the lives of our viewers.

And, the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation (bright upbeat music) Hello, welcome to "Inspire."

I'm excited to be here with my wonderful co-host, Danielle Norwood, and of course, Amy Kelly, and you.

This is a serious topic though.

In Kansas, 16% of our population does not have enough food to eat on a regular basis.

One in six children in our state consistently go hungry.

- And more than 30% of Kansas counties are classified as food deserts, which the United States Department of Agriculture defines as not living within one mile of a grocery store in urban areas, or within 10 miles in rural areas.

- On today's show we're taking a deep dive into the topic of food insecurity, examining who is impacted by food insecurity, looking at some of the barriers to obtaining healthy food, and also talking about what you can do to help.

Joining us today is Dan McPherron from Project Topeka, an all-volunteer organization providing food for hungry families since 1986.

Welcome to "Inspire," Dan.

- Welcome.

- Thanks.

- Glad you're here.

- Thanks for having me.

- There's so many questions that I have that I'm going to try to restrain myself because I'm passionate about this topic.

So we're gonna start off with the definition of food insecurity, what is that?

- The definition of food insecurity is not having consistent access to enough food to have a healthy and active lifestyle, I think that's what I've seen the US Department of Agriculture define food insecurity as.

- And how is that different from being hungry?

'Cause there'll be some people that will say, "Isn't that the same thing?"

- You can be hungry, but you can still have access to food, right?

You know, you have the means and ability to go get food and solve your hunger, but food insecurity means you don't have that consistent ability to go get that food that you need to solve that hunger problem.

- And when you're insecure about your food, you're insecure about so many other things, and being hungry means that you can't concentrate in class, you can't concentrate at work, expand on that place.

- Well, yeah, if you're hungry, I mean, as we all know, when you go to work, if you're hungry, you're not gonna be able to work, it's gonna be tough to work, you're not gonna be able to concentrate and get your job done, do what you need to do.

If you're in class as a kid and you're hungry, how do you pay attention?

That's, you know, that'll lead to engagement issues, and our kids won't stay engaged, they're not gonna be able to answer questions, they're gonna act up because they're hungry.

If you don't have that food, how, you know, what can you do?

- Mm-hmm.

- We live in a civilized country, we have a lot of money in the nation and the state.

I mean, how can this happen?

How can there be that level of hunger and food insecurity in our community?

- I think it's a tough topic to talk about, I think it's hard for people to understand and realize that people next to them are going hungry, people don't wanna admit that they're hungry, people don't wanna talk about that they're hungry, people don't wanna say that they're not having that access to the food that they need.

I'd even say, just my opinion in this, politicians don't wanna talk about it either, it's a tough topic because there isn't an easy solution, if you had an easy solution, we wouldn't have the problem, of course, so it just makes it makes it really difficult to address it if we don't know what's really going on.

- Project Topeka is helping, how so?

- Project Topeka is, we've been helping, like you said, we've been around since 1986 and for the most of our 35+ years in existence, we've been helping locally, here in Shawnee County, and what we've been doing is collecting food through food drives with businesses, or people, or organizations, and also collecting funds, and then we take that food and funds and give it out to seven local agencies.

So the money that's raised here and food that's donated here in Shawnee County stays here, so it's going to help the people.

When you give locally, it stays locally.

- Let's tell about who those seven are, because I know Let's Help is one of 'em, Salvation Army's one of 'em.

- Yes.

- Who else?

- Topeka Rescue Mission, I Care, Faith and Fellowship, Doorstep, and Topeka North Outreach.

- [Betty] Mm-hmm.

- Talk about the people that you see, are most of them poor or how does that work?

Because I'm sure that COVID brought in some different people because just of the lack of jobs and so forth.

- From our standpoint, we don't actually see 'em since we give the food and funds to the agencies.

The communication I hear from the agencies, you know, in the last two years it's changed, there's been more demand for access for their services, more people need the food, more people need, just need that help to get by, they're not able to make it week to week or month to month.

You know, and then the agencies are running out of food sooner, and then the cost of food, especially in the last year, has just gone up so much, it's even harder for these agencies to purchase the money, purchase the food that they need to get by.

- And fresh fruit, I mean, that's almost, you can't even hardly get that, correct?

Like if you wanna put an apple in the bag, I know you guys do bags, tell us about those.

- Yeah, we can't do those 'cause we don't have the abilities to do the perishables, but the food drives that are done for the agencies are non-perishable items, so they're getting all the cans and, you know, and non-perishable items.

The funds that we give 'em, a lot of 'em are take, use it, and go to the grocery store, and then they will purchase butter, eggs, meat, bread, so they're using that to buy the perishables that they need and they can buy it, since we're providing those funds and paying that bill for them.

- Right.

- With the funds that are donated, they can go buy it on a regular basis to help keep those items in stock.

- So talk to us, when we were, before talking, before we started having (chuckles) filming today, about one of the projects that you do in some of the schools here in Topeka.

- Sure.

- Tell us about that.

- Sure.

For years all Project Topeka was doing, you know, raising funds and food for these agencies, and about five years ago we started realizing, you know, that part has slowed down quite a bit, we don't receive the food and funds that we used to for many reasons, but what we thought, "What else could we do?

What other needs are not being met in the community?"

And the one thing that kept coming up over and over and over is hunger among kids, you know, and how do you help these kids?

And so we had an opportunity to find a partner for some funding, to go out and look at what could we do to help, and so we started talking to local schools, especially USD 501, and we wanted to talk to them about, you know, what could we do, what could we help?

How's your programs, you know, what need's not being met?

And what came up is kids are going hungry on the weekend and they we're not receiving the food that they need.

When the kids are in school, they're getting breakfast when they come in, they're getting fed lunch, you know, there's some free and reduced lunch programs, and so kids are getting fed there, but as soon as they go home on the weekend, they're not getting the same food because of food insecurity that's going on, and so the backpack programs that were in their school currently, in the first school we were going to, they had around 80%, you know, free and reduced lunch qualification, or maybe called the poverty rate, and that school had about 390 kids at that time, but they're only receiving 20 backpacks or bags of food on the weekend, and they had to pick 20 kids to go to.

So we decided, okay, that's obviously not meeting the need, how do you, you know, and it's not only not meeting the needs, creating stigma about food assistance, and teachers and the principals are having to decide which 20 kids are the most in need out of 390, and then they have to put it in their bag, and you know, it's tough, it's tough for those kids.

They don't wanna be seen as the one that needs the food compared to the other ones, and they're also finding out the kids were not actually eating that food either as well.

And so we decided to try a test program.

You know, we thought, "Okay, what if we were to come in and give 100% of the kids at that school a bag of food to take home with them on the weekend?

Would that reduce the stigma attached to food assistance?"

But also, would it help them with engagement?

With the schools you need engagement, attendance, other things, would all of that increase if we could do that?

And so we decided to test this with Randolph Elementary, and the reason we chose Randolph Elementary, the administrator there at the time, Dr. Grays, was amazing, and you know, we needed a champion in the school to help us out, and he was in there and he just championed the program, and so we started to test this program, and the results the first year were, we didn't even expect, we couldn't even, they blew us away.

- Right.

- You know, kids, everyone got the food, they were eating of the food that was in the bags, they were, you know, if they could take it home and they didn't eat it, some of the kids who didn't need it, everyone was still taking it.

- All right.

But they would take it home and give it to other family members that needed it, donate it at their church or something.

So we know the food they were given was going out and going somewhere.

- Yes.

- And as Dr. Gray would say, the first year they noticed engagement increased, they had attendance increase, and he even says academic performance increased.

We're not gonna take credit for that, of course, put that on the teachers and the principal, they do a great job.

So if those kids are coming in and not being hungry, you know, they're able to participate and do more in school.

And then the other thing I'd like to say, mention about that program too is, when we said we'd go in and help provide food bags to the school, we also said, "What are the other food needs that you have?"

And they talked about those teachers having to give out granola bars or food to the kids out of their own pocket, and they were paying for it for those kids that were coming in and late had missed the breakfast, and so we said, "Okay, we can do something about it," and so we started providing more Nutri-Grain bars and some individual other snack packs to the school nurse, and we provide them on an every-couple-week basis, and that helps them so they can take care of that hunger need for that kid for just for that couple hours till they get lunch again, so- - This is fantastic and thank you, Dan.

And if you're probably wondering how you can help, we're gonna get you in touch with that, it's a very important topic.

I want you to know that Project Topeka, everybody that's working on this is a volunteer, so if you can volunteer or if you can get some money, help 'em pack the bags, they put nine items in every bag every week for the kid to take home, so please do help us.

We'll be back with just a little bit more information about an oasis in a food desert, you'll like this, stay with us.

(bright upbeat music) - Welcome, we are back, continuing our discussion on food insecurity.

Joining us now are Janet Cathcart and Marge Orange of the Central Topeka Grocery Oasis.

Welcome to "Inspire," ladies, thank you very much for coming today- - Thank you so- - Okay, so what is the Central Topeka Grocery Oasis?

- The group started four and a half years ago, a grassroots group of eight neighbors got together to attempt to see how we could develop a grocery store back in the area of Central Topeka at 12th and Huntoon or Lane, where there had been a grocery store for 89 years- - Wow.

- Previously, until we lost our Kroger in 2016, and actually I met a neighbor across the street who said, "We need a grocery store," and I said, "Well, we do, so let's do it," and we began calling people like Jan and other community leaders in that area, and got together and began working out how we could possibly do this.

- I love it 'cause it's all neighbors- - It was.

- You all had a cause, not only food though, but that's where you saw each other in the grocery store aisles, you knew what was going on in the neighborhood, it was a sense of connection as well, correct?

- Yes, yes, and then we actually had sent out a survey too, you know, defining out what services people want and that was one of the things that came up a lot, was like, you know, we miss seeing our neighbors.

We miss having a place to just, you know, go and kinda get our shopping and hang out and, you know, socialize a little.

So that was, yeah, that's something that they definitely missed.

- They also lost the ability to get- - Prescriptions.

- Well, prescriptions too, for sure, but also even postal services and money orders to pay bills, because we have, our community is not a banking community, it's a community that operates on cash.

- Yeah.

- And to find those services now ever since 2016 is really difficult.

- [Betty] Mm-hmm.

- How many people were impacted by the loss of Kroger?

- Well, we are operating under the assumption that the nine neighborhoods through the central part of Topeka are most affected, and it has 12 to 13,000 people.

- Wow.

- They're primarily, they're almost all neighborhood improvement organizations and only one is not, they have been struggling in every kind of degree.

So we found out, with our data research, that 25% don't even have access to a vehicle and that 35% of the households have at least one disabled person.

- Wow.

- We're operating with some pretty difficult data, which gave us much more of a drive to work towards some kind of a solution that would meet the needs and then the specific needs of these, our own neighbors.

- And talk about the senior community 'cause I have a passion for making sure that they're taken care of, 'cause a lot of times they get left to the side, they don't have family members that are coming in to check on them and not having a grocery store that's, like, close to them, there's a struggle for them to get those kind of things that they need.

Talk about the impact on them.

- Well, for sure, if you don't have a vehicle and if you have any kind of a disability or impairment, which happens to us as we age, you're in trouble.

- Yeah.

- And I don't think we can make light of the degree of trouble for people.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Even people who are getting food stamps in that community, the average is only a $120 a month.

- Wow, are you serious?

- That's right.

- You can't eat on that.

- So- - At all.

- And- - You can't eat- - And you can't eat on it.

- Let alone feed a family.

- No.

- Let alone get medicine.

- Right.

- Right.

- Right.

- We know that 30% of the people in those nine neighborhoods live below poverty.

- Wow.

- That's a bunch.

And two of our census tracts have the highest degree of both poverty and food insecurity in the county, that gives us a lot of reason, again, to work to resolve the problem on a permanent basis and sustainable basis.

We wanna open something that can really last and is directed towards those people.

- So the situation in which we find ourselves is that the Dillons that was downtown at 12th and Lane closed in 2016, after 89 years, you said, now that it's closed, the information I have, 12,000 people in that neighborhood, over 5,000 households- - Right.

- No longer have access.

I mean, the closest grocery store is miles and miles away.

You've talked about solutions, please give us good news.

What are some of solutions on the horizon?

- We've had neighbors who've come in and helped other neighbors go out, but what we wanna provide the store so people have independence, you know?

'Cause that's a lot of it too, being able to just go to the store themselves, you know, and not having to rely on, you know, a ride from a family member, a ride from a friend, or from, you know, another organization or something.

We want it to be able to, so just, you know, a lot of people walk in our neighborhood so, you know, just being able to access it that way.

We have, well, GraceMed's one of our partners, we've had partners also with, the Sunflower Foundation is one, Topeka Community Foundation has been helping us.

- Kansas Health Foundation.

- [Janet] Yeah.

- Which did our, gave us money for our market study that showed that, indeed, a store could do well there, it isn't because it's a bad location, because it's a great location.

- Well, now you were working with people in Holton, explain that, how that partnership... - Well, we just talked with them this morning and learned how they started a store, and their goals were different, but they showed they could do it and they could do it profitably, and we're at a point now where we're ready to develop a business plan.

So we talked with Carly Worrell, who created that store with her cousin, it specializes in fresh meat, that was their goal, and they're successful.

Our goals will be to specialize in serving our neighbors, and we have a partnership with GraceMed, which is working towards our final lease agreement with them to lease the one-acre site at 12th and- - Washburn.

- In 12th and Washburn.

- Okay.

- Yeah, everyone.

- Everyone, and people think it's under construction now because of the street work, but there is a one-acre site there and we know that we can build a 14,000 square foot store- - Wow.

- With 10,000 square feet of retail.

- Right.

- And that's the same size, it's close to the same size as that new store in Holton, and they have a big box store just on the street.

So we know, we also know there has been a store at sixth, the Tilton's has been there since- - Right.

- Mm-hmm.

- 1935, and it makes a profit, it is successful, and it serves the people right there, it's smaller so it serves people in that area well with creative ideas.

So we know that we can do it, the location is precious because it's right in the middle of that band of people who are without any access.

- Right.

- Well, Janet and Marge, what you've told us today is inspirational.

Let us know how we can be a part of it because obviously there's a need and we wanna be a part of the solution, so thank you so much for being on "Inspired" today, it has touched my heart.

After the break, we're going to talk about what you could do to help others facing food insecurity in your community, please stay with us.

(bright upbeat music) Krav Maga is Isreali Martial Arts.

It teaches you to be aware of your surroundings.

And try to go back home save without using the most force.

But if you have to, you can use those combatives to kind of protect yourself and get out of a dangerous situation.

Krav Maga is a self defense system.

It's martial arts, but we take the best of all the other martial arts and combine them into a system where most anyone can learn how to protect themselves.

Well, the Golden Rule of Krav Maga is to go home safe, do what you need to do to get yourself home at the end of the day, but the three main principles of Kra Maga are to address the immediate threat defend and, thirdly create space and distance from your attacker.

So, the nice thing about Krav Maga is it's principle based, if you can follow the principles, it makes it a lot easier for you to pick up, versus other systems which are a little bit more technique focused, they teach traditional form and one steps which are all totally fine, but the nice thing about Krav is that because it is principle based, it makes it easier for beginners to pick up on it and start applying it than the more you get repetition on the actual techniques, the easier it becomes.

The benefits of doing Krav Maga, I mean, it gives you, definately a higher sense of self security, because, you know, your personal safety is one of, you know, your highest priorities and we want to give people the opportunity to comfortable in knowing that in the event that you're faced with a scary situation where they needed to physically defend themselves they could do that, and also be able to vocally defend yourself as well.

Because we train our students to de-escalate as much as possible but we do give them the tools to be able to physically defend themselves if needed if it comes down to it.

It kind of helps me keep that Marine Corp mentality in a sense, like being aware of my surroundings, and you know I was a single parent for so long so just kind of helping me to be aware, you know, for my children as well and give you a sense of confidence, knowing that if there's a situation that arises that you can protect yourself and it actually help me to loose quite a bit of weight that I gained over the years so I've lost probably over 40 pounds.

One, it's a great activity to keep you active and two, confidence!

Three, the benefits I think overall is just that you gain so much knowledge and capability about knowing how to defend yourself and it makes you a lot more aware of your surroundings you always need to be aware of your surroundings you always need to be plan oriented, and make sure that in case of a situation you know whether to or engage and so I think it just makes you overall an really well rounded person and possibly more calm just because you know that if something were to come up, if a confrontation happened, you're able to address it in an appropriate manner.

(bright upbeat music) - I am glad you stayed there because we need you to help us.

There's so many people in need, you guys, let's go back to Project Topeka packing 1,000 packs of food every week to be given, taken home by the kids, given out by fellow students on the weekends.

- Yes, oh, it's fantastic.

You know, Dan was saying that they started in Randolph school, then they were able to move to Lowman Hill, then they're in, now they're in Highland Park- - Highland Park Central.

- Central.

- [Betty] Right.

- So there's 1,000 kids that they are able to service, and they have 12 to 15 volunteers, they show up on a Tuesday and they pack all these bags in two hours.

- That's amazing.

- And they're all non-perishable so that it lasts for a long time and then they take 'em to the schools and the kids give 'em out to the kids, and it's 100%, everybody gets one, so there's no stigma.

- No stigma.

- There's nobody, you know, has to know exactly what's going on in their home lives, and these kids get food, it is so inspiring.

- And they give them things they wanna eat, you know?

- Right.

- Some cool cookies- - Yeah.

- And maybe on, you know, Valentine's Day, little treats- - [Betty] Put a little heart in there.

- I mean.

- Some candy hearts.

- And little junk things.

- Yeah.

- I think that that's awesome.

- And the other thing about it is, in Central Topeka there are people who are working, it's not that they don't wanna work, they've got education, but they're just not making much money, they're the working poor.

- There are a lot of people that were affected by COVID, losing their jobs, and they ended up being on the receiving end of getting those groceries, and think about being in a food desert, having to try to go and get all of your groceries and put 'em on a bus, and sometimes there are people who take the carts out of the store.

- Right.

- Not because of anything, you know, nefarious, it's just that they need to get their groceries- - Right.

- From the store to their house or apartment and- - And they have to take their kids with them 'cause there's no childcare- - Yes, I mean- - So, it's just a big- - Is a lot.

- Right.

- It is a lot, and we have to find a solution for this, especially when some of the highest numbers of people who are impoverished are in one particular area, not just in Topeka, but also in the county.

- [Betty] Mm-hmm.

- And in that particular area, what we learned is that about 50% of the people are of color.

- Yes.

- In that area, so that's disproportionately represented, but 95% are employed.

- Yes.

- So it's not like they're just lazying around, they're working, they're working hard, but they don't have access to food, that's ridiculous.

- Well, they don't have- - That's ridiculous- - Great jobs either.

I mean, if you're working a job that's, like, seven or nine-some bucks an hour and you're trying to, like, you know, 40 hours a week on that, you are gonna have to work multiple jobs just to be able to pay for rent, or if your kids need medicine, or if you need medicine.

- Right.

- I mean, there's just a lot of ways that the dollar is not stretching as far as it was previously.

- It is not, but you know what?

If you have some dollars, we wanna stretch 'em, and you can do it with either the Oasis group that we were talking about.

- Yes.

- Project Topeka.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yes.

- Or if you can volunteer your time.

That is all the time we have for today, but we hope you've been inspired by today's conversations and we hope you are inspired to take action in your community and our community.

And you can watch this program again at watch.ktwu.org.

- And if you are so inspired to learn more about our guests, find out what's coming up on future shows, and to get access to additional content, be sure to visit our website at www.ktwu.org/inspire.

- Inspiring women, inspiring community, inspiring you, on KTWU, thank you for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Inspire" is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart, using furniture to inspire conversation, and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.

The Friends of KTWU, honored to support programs and services that enrich the lives of our viewers.

And, the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation