Hunger Action Team Update: December 2021

What’s happening at Kansas Appleseed to fight hunger in Kansas

Welcome to the Thriving Campaign team, Paige Olson!

The Thriving Campaign team has expanded, and we are thrilled to introduce and welcome Paige Olson to the Kansas Appleseed team. Paige, a mother of three kids from Allen County, KS, is a longtime anti-hunger champion. Having experienced poverty and food insecurity, Paige believes food is a right and will be working with Southeast Kansas communities to combat hunger. Before joining our team, Paige worked with the Humanity House Foundation in Iola, KS, helped establish a local soup kitchen, advocated locally for affordable utilities, and more. We are excited for Paige to continue building power and capacity in an area she calls home!

We empower residents of SEKS to welcome, connect, and reach out to meet Paige and hear more about her incredible work in the area. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to a Thriving Advocate! (Contact info included below.)

Paige Olson, SEKS Thriving Advocate

Regional Hunger Action Team Highlights!

Last month, the Thriving team met with advocates, impacted communities, and anti-hunger champions statewide for our first regional meetings! Each meeting was full of honesty, accountability, leadership, and drive. Kansas is brimming with thought-leaders and community catalysts for change.

Here are some of the highlights from each of the regions we met with:

Southeast Kansas—Theme: Non-territorial Collaboration

• Southeast Kansas anti-hunger champions are ready to get to work and hope that everyone who attends will feel the true spirit of collaboration
• Attendees agreed to refrain from focusing only on individual contributions and instead focus on ways teamwork can benefit their communities
• Most of the meeting was spent discussing community agreements to build a productive, safe, and empowering foundation for future meetings

Southwest Kansas—Theme: Dignity for people who are experiencing hunger

• Vibrant discussion about how Southwest Kansans can own their stories and solutions and how we as an organization can work to make spaces accessible by accommodating individual needs through cultural competency and diversity and inclusion
• Anti-hunger champions expressed a need for language services so that everyone who attends feels empowered to participate in the SWKS Hunger Action Team

Northwest Kansas—Theme: Strategizing ways to build more relationships in rural communities

• Delegating ways each anti-hunger champion in attendance can bring more people in the region into the Hunger Action Team
• Hoping to engage students from the local universities and community colleges

Northeast Kansas—Theme: How to reduce dependency on charitable solutions

• Amazing attendance from anti-hunger champions in Northeast Kansas whose discussion focused on the gaps in resources for rural Northeast Kansans and ways urban resources can expand outreach and knowledge of the wealth of resources
• NEKS attendees also expressed a desire to challenge food donation policies to better support local mutual aid projects

Central Kansas—Theme: How can we build more sustainable and consistent access to food?

• Anti-hunger champions discussed the need for more food pantries across the region and sustainable resources for individuals and families to get consistent food

Policy Priorities: Thriving Kansas Families

From increasing access to SNAP food assistance to working with partners to combat food sales tax, our team will be heading to the statehouse in 2022, ready to build a more thriving Kansas.

SNAP is proven to reduce hunger, improve health, bolster local economies, create jobs, and help people out of poverty. Limiting access to food assistance negatively impacts families and is also strongly correlated with more kids entering foster care in Kansas. In 2022, the Thriving Team will focus on policies that increase access to SNAP and reduce hunger for Kansas families by eliminating the child support enforcement requirement and the lifetime drug felony ban.

Learn more about our policy priorities for 2022 here.

State and national policy updates

In our November newsletter, we discussed policy updates from the Biden Administration on the Build Back Better Act and from Gov. Laura Kelly on the Kansas food sales tax.

Axe the Kansas Food Sales Tax

In early November, Gov. Laura Kelly announced her administration’s plan to eliminate Kansas’s food sales tax. As we know, Kansas is one of only seven states in the nation that taxes groceries. Kansas has the second-highest rate in the country.

Kansans and organizations across the state are advocating for the removal of the Kansas food sales tax. We are asking that you join us, organizations, and individuals across the state in urging our Kansas Legislature to make ending the state-level food sales tax a top priority for the 2022 session to help Kansas families put food on their tables, particularly low-income families.

Take Action: Voice your support to end the sales tax in 2022 by joining this letter to Kansas legislators and sharing this with other hunger champions in your area!

Build Back Better

Last month, the U.S. House passed the Build Back Better Act, which could have a huge impact on Kansas families and provide the necessary supports for Kansans to thrive. The Senate is set to vote on BBB in early January 2022 so here’s some context for what the BBB Act could mean for Kansans:

• Build Back Better will lower costs and increase access to child care, which means more consistent and nutritious meals (and so much more!) for families and kids who participate in child care programs across our state.
• The Build Back Better Act will allow more than 47,000 additional Kansas children, ages 3 and 4, will have access to free, high-quality preschool.

Call your Senators today and urge them to vote in support of Kansas children and their hard-working parents: U.S. Senator Jerry Moran: (202) 224–6521; U.S. Senator Roger Marshall: (202) 224–4774.

Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday season,

Martha Terhaar, SWKS Thriving Campaign Advocate, mterhaar@kansasappleseed.org

Tajahnaé Stocker, Thriving Campaign Advocate, tstocker@kansasappleseed.org

Paige Olson, SEKS Thriving Campaign Advocate, polson@kansasappleseed.org

Haley Kottler, Thriving Campaign Director, hkottler@kansasappleseed.org