TOPEKA — Mark Pringle has seen the self-sufficient mindset of many Kansas farmers and their families challenged by COVID-19 as the virus disproportionately impacts rural communities.
Pringle is a fourth-generation farmer and the Democratic candidate for the Kansas House in the 13th District. He and his wife, Mary Jane Shanklin, a registered nurse, have watched as communities like theirs in Woodson County cancel fairs and close hospitals, distancing themselves from one another.
“There is this idea, from outside and within some parts our community, that farmers are tough and resilient and can do it all on their own,” Pringle said. “Truthfully, farming was already a very marginal, at-risk business. Now, without many of those face-to-face interactions, we feel pretty much on our own to deal with our problems and that can be frightening.”
The pandemic has exposed and uncovered fissures in communities nationwide, as marginalized groups feel the brunt of the pandemic’s impact. In Kansas, that includes many small and midsized farmers, who activists say already struggled with access to health care and unstable trade before COVID-19.
Bankruptcies among farmers were at eight-year highs entering March, and then the pandemic hit, scrambling the food-supply chain. Restaurants closed and prices for cattle and hogs dropped as meatpacking plants, including many in Southwest Kansas, became hot spots for the virus.
The Rev. William Barber II and the Poor People’s Campaign are pushing for moral solutions to the issues of systemic racism and systemic poverty. (Screenshot/Kansas Reflector)
The Rev. William Barber II and the Poor People’s Campaign are pushing for moral solutions to the issues of systemic racism and systemic poverty. (Screenshot/Kansas Reflector)
“It’s morally inconsistent and economically insane not to address these issues,” said the Rev. William Barber II, a leader of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. “If we don’t address these issues that have been exposed, we could find ourselves in another Great Depression economically and an even greater depression morally.”
The Poor People’s Campaign is a nationwide revival of Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s 1968 movement to unite and uplift poor and impacted communities across the nation. Led by Barber and Liz Theoharris, of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, the campaign is focused on confronting systemic racism, poverty and ecological devastation, among other issues.
Amid COVID-19, the movement has pushed for a moral reopening plan that does not cast these marginalized communities aside. Earlier this year, Barber led a protest against various states’ reopening plans that left disadvantaged communities vulnerable.
“Whether you are a Black person in an urban area or a white farmer in rural Kansas, this issue of being overlooked existed long before the pandemic,” said Letiah Fraser, a convener for the Poor People’s Campaign of Kansas. “It’s just much more evident during a health crisis that we have communities being left without care and medical attention.”
Access to health care is a primary concern for Fraser. Since 2010, seven rural Kansas hospitals have closed their doors.
The nearest hospital to Pringle and Shanklin is 30 minutes away, driving at about 70 mph, and the clinic in town is only open four days per week. Shanklin has also noticed a concerning decrease in the number of people accessing the health facilities that have remained open.
“I can say from the people I have spoken to that many are scared to go in and get that health help amid the pandemic,” Shanklin said. “It was already difficult to get the care one needs in these rural areas.”
She also noted a lack of accessible testing when the virus was first identified in the county.
