The Kansas Food Bank: Helping the hungry since 1984.
That’s what Debi Kreutzman, community relations manager of the organization, told Iola Rotarians Thursday — in more detail.
At last count, 15.5 percent of Allen Countians were food insecure, or about 2,000 of the county’s 13,000 inhabitants. Of those, 19 percent don’t quality for any type of governmental assistance. The elderly, without statistical measure, are reluctant to ask for or accept help.
“They made it on their own all of their lives and now they’re too proud to ask for food assistance,” Kreutzman said.
And then, there are the kids. One in five children in Allen County are considered food insecure, she said: 83 percent are eligible for free or reduced priced meals at school. Outside of school programs, the food bank assists 64 children in Iola and five in Moran by way of the Food 4 Kids weekend backpack program.
About 200 families here receive food assistance each month, which translates to 500 families. “Others just do without,” Kreutzman said.
THE KANSAS Food Bank, privately funded, is a part of the feeding consortium in Allen County. What it provides supplements food that is collected from such sources as church and private donations and local letter carriers annual drive that nets thousands of pounds of nonperishable commodities.
Walmart’s Food Rescue Program also is a godsend, for food and personal hygiene items.
She explained how it works. If when opening a case of toilet paper the knife cuts too deeply and leaves a slit in packaging, the case is marked unacceptable. The toilet paper is good to use, and adds to a pantry’s stock.
The food bank has available, with no predictable amounts from month to month, non-perishables including some vegetables.
“We’re kind of like Amazon.com,” Kreutzman said. Recipients “send a list each month and sometimes we have a lot of what they need, sometimes its limited.”
The organization delivers by truck and in places where pantries don’t have an established site distribution is made from the truck. “Iola is blessed to have a fixed building,” she said.
From an inauspicious start, the food bank has grown to where it distributed 13 million pounds in 2015 to provide 11 million family meals.
This year statewide 6,300 kids benefit from prepackaged weekend backpacks. They go to school children up to 14 years of age, and “we take in account if there is a pre-school sibling at home,” Kreutzman said.
“What we do is ‘give a hand up, not a hand out,’” she crowed.
