The Kansas Health Foundation (KHF) in Wichita has announced four grants totaling nearly $1 million in support of organizations addressing food insecurity across the state.

KHF’s Hunger Free Kansas initiative works with advocacy groups, local coalitions, colleges and universities, philanthropic, corporate, and state and local government partners “to make sure no Kansan goes hungry.” According to KHF, one in eight Kansans are classified as food insecure and “one in five Kansas children do not know where their next meal will come from.”

Recipients include Kansas Appleseed ($350,000), which will work to ensure that children have access to nutritious meals at school in both rural and urban areas statewide; the Kansas Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture ($298,122), which aims to establish a regional food hub to bolster local production, processing, and distribution; Kanbe’s Markets ($276,875), which will leverage its buying power to reduce food costs for residents in food deserts; and Douglas County ($50,000), which will collect data to better serve its Indigenous community and support Indigenous food producers.

“Kansas is thought of as the breadbasket of our nation, yet, in communities throughout the state, too many of our neighbors struggle to find their next meal,” said KHF president Ed O’Malley. “Hunger and food insecurity are issues in Kansas that can no longer be ignored.”

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