Mobile Food Pantries (an initiative of Johnson County)

I worked at the Crisis Center mobile food pantry this afternoon at Breckenridge. The Antelope Lending Library was also there. This happens monthly at Breckenridge and various other areas that are food deserts.

A few years back, the County convened a Hunger Task Force to explore areas of concern and to propose solutions. One of the findings was areas that had no or little access to food. These are called food deserts. We have areas in the urban area and around at mobile home parks where accessing food, even food pantries, is difficult. The County issued grants to begin to address these and more hunger issues. The Crisis Center created a new program for mobile food pantry to address this need.

I'm told they have about 15 families that regularly use the mobile pantry at Breckenridge. You can donate to the Crisis Center for this project and similar needs. They always need a variety of food, household items and fruit and produce. It isn't just about food, for example one little girl was excited to get a new toothbrush.

The families also seemed to really enjoy being able to get books from Antelope Lending Library. I saw several bags of books coming and going.

The County will be hosting a Poverty Summit later this fall to further discuss hunger and other issues of poverty.