Seniors nervous after cuts to free commodities
Staff writer
After Kansas Department of Children and Families announced last week that a commodities program that ships free food across Kansas would pause this month because of a lack of federal funding, county seniors spoke Tuesday about what the program meant to them.
The commodities program serves more than 250 low-income families in Marion County. Food usually is delivered from Concordia directly to Marion Senior Center.
Lu Turk, director of the county’s Department on Aging, hoped to find a private driver to carry the food to Marion but was told by DCF administrators June 12 that this was not permitted.
Connie Fisher said she participated in the commodities program for “a couple years” but had not done so for a while.
“It’s terrible,” she said of the pause.
Bea Kelsey, Cathy Henderson, and Clarita Caudill do not qualify for the program — unlike the county food bank, there are income stipulations — but all agreed it was important to the health of the community.
“I think it’s needed,” Kelsey said. “A lot of people come in here for commodities… There are a lot of people who can’t afford to buy their own groceries.”
Kelsey said she was surprised to hear the program had paused and disappointed in the federal government for not providing funding.
Henderson, a board member at the food bank, said lack of a commodities program would lead more people to the food bank.
Asked whether that would stretch resources thin, Henderson said: “I hope not, but I don’t know.”
Some families already use both the food bank and the commodities program.
Caudill, a frequent food bank volunteer, was confident the food bank would hold up.
“We’ve never had a problem,” she said.
Seniors were reluctant to speak about political implications of the pause, which comes amid fears that President Donald Trump could strip away resources for Medicaid, SNAP, and other social programs.
“We don’t like any of it,” Diana Dalton said.
Caudill was one to defend Trump’s actions.
“I feel like they’re just waiting for the states to take over and fill in the gaps,” she said. “It’s not something the federal should be doing anyway. The states should take care of their people.”
Henderson pointed out that Kansas already was involved in the program.
The state uses federally allocated money to buy food from the Department of Agriculture.
“I think it’s ridiculous that we should have hungry people in Kansas or in any state,” she said.
Judy Christensen helped distribute commodities when the program was run out of the now-defunct Lions Club in Marion.
“We were very fortunate to have it,” she said. “It helped a lot of people, the elderly and the needy. When they would bring it in here sometimes, it was amazing to see all the stuff that they got.”
Christensen’s son, who was handicapped and lived alone, received help from the program.
“They brought his food to him,” Christensen said. “They would take some of the commodities that they knew would benefit him up to him. That was very, very nice of them.”
The program had been a source of food for those stuck at home because of disability, age, or poverty. Proxies sometimes delivered food directly to their door.
“Some of them don’t have the cars, the transportation,” Kelsey said.
Christensen also expressed frustration about the government halting funding.
“I see commodities being abused sometimes,” she said. “But on the other hand, I see families who really, really need it. It’s going to be sad they can’t get it anymore.”