Second Harvest of Greater St. Joseph

In Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas, one of the most agriculturally abundant areas of the country, food insecurity is around every corner. Throughout the 19 counties we serve, approximately 25,000 people per month — largely comprised of children, seniors, the working poor and people with disabilities — rely on food pantries, senior citizen centers and food kitchens. In addition, the number of those experiencing difficulty affording food for themselves and their families has grown by 20 percent over the last year.

Food insecurity results from problems affording or accessing needed food. Low-income individuals often have to make choices between providing enough food for themselves or their families and paying the month's rent or utility bills. With food prices rising, difficulty affording groceries among families with already stretched budgets has reached crisis levels. The steadily rising cost of living is also being felt by middle-income families, who are increasingly experiencing difficulty affording food. Meanwhile, a number of financial pressures — including health issues, health insurance issues and low wages — continue to affect families with low to moderate incomes.

In addition to financial problems, low-income families are characterized by a lack of affordable, nutritious food available to them. Add to that equation chronically stretched budgets and the prevalence of low-cost, low-quality food, and it is easy to understand the challenges of leading a truly healthy lifestyle in many of the families we serve — which lead to high concentrations of diet-related conditions such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension.

Second Harvest of Greater St. Joseph, a member of Feeding America, is the area’s link between an abundant food supply and people in need. The challenges of hunger here are not centered around scarcity but rather in distribution of nutritious food.

We are mission driven to distribute food to where it is need most. We also educate and advocate to the public about the importance in creating awareness surrounding hunger issues.

Last year, we distributed more than 3.8 million pounds of food to our 19- county service area, which includes 125 member agencies such as food pantries, soup kitchens and senior citizen centers. Together, we fed more than 2.7 million meals last year, with almost 20 percent being children and another 20 percent being elderly.

We are guided by four initiatives to provide help—and hope—every day to our more than 25,000 neighbors in need in our service area.