OVERLAND PARK, Kan — As federal assistance to food programs scale back, a Kansas City student is stepping up to keep families fed.
As President Donald Trump’s administration attempts to lower inflation by reducing government spending, part of those cuts are impacting food banks across the country, including in Kansas City.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced cuts to its Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a vital lifeline for food banks across the country.
“I kind of saw the article that a lot of the food that was originally coming to Kansas City, Missouri had been cut from USDA," said Adeline Clifford.
Seeing the problem, this junior at Shawnee Mission East decided to step up and become the solution.
“It was definitely kind of unfortunate to see that," said Clifford. "The food and the money wasn't going there anymore, which is kind of why I wanted to help do something about it, and hopefully help offset some of the missing food with the food drive.”
Clifford reached out to Harvesters, one of Kansas City's biggest food programs and partnered with the organization to collect non-perishable items.
“It's definitely taught me a lot about, you can still have an impact without necessarily having, like, a certain role or, like a special title," said Clifford.
Clifford helped place nine drop-off boxes at several locations throughout the Johnson County area.
Her goal is to collect over 1,000lbs of food to distribute to Harvesters.
“I honestly wasn't really sure what to expect starting this, but it's been really cool to see how positive and receptive everyone's been, and how everyone will kind of chip in to help," said Clifford.
Harvesters released their annual report for 2024. Last year the organization distributed over 50 million meals across Kansas City, two million of those meals came from initiatives like Adeline's.
“I feel like everyone really cares a lot about Kansas City. And everyone is involved in their community in this area, and I feel like that definitely shows people have been really willing to help," said Clifford.
The last day to drop of donations for Adeline's food drive will be tomorrow.
Here are the nine drop-off locations:
| 80 Santa Fe Gallery [80santafe.com] |
Click here to learn more ways to help Harvesters.
KSHB 41 reporter Marlon Martinez covers Platte and Clay counties in Missouri. Share your story idea with Marlon
