Kansas City Lawmaker And Volunteers ‘Fill A Void’ During Easter As Food Prices Escalate

Volunteers at a recent Easter giveaway in Kansas City stacked canned goods, organized sacks of vegetables and placed baskets filled with personal care products in cars.

“Once the pandemic started, I felt like, ‘Children aren’t being in school and parents having to still go to work, we needed to do something to fill the void,’” said Missouri Senator Barbara Washington. “Many of our kids needed food so we started this actually by extending feeding to school age kids for breakfast and lunch every day. So, with the help of Total Man, we’re doing about 1,800 to 2,500 hot breakfasts and lunches a day.”

Washington spearheaded the Easter food drive with help from the organization Total Man Community Development Corporation, Swope Health and a handful of other sponsors.

The decision to distribute more than food arose during the early months of the pandemic when some household items were difficult to find.

Randy Wright inched his car forward in the line. “I am trying to take care of some foster children and a family,” he said.

Washington added, “We keep doing it because the need is still there. Although the unemployment rate has dropped, the jobs that are offered to people are still low.”

Food Prices Increase Globally

Hundreds of families arrived for the assistance. With inflation higher than it’s been in the last 40 years, concerns are growing nationally about the price of food.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Price Outlook 2022 – the agency’s Consumer Price Index for food which measures inflation – is up 7.9% from February 2021. It is the largest increase since May 1981.

Food prices at grocery stores are expected to increase 3%-4% this year which follows a 6.8% increase from January 2021. Restaurant prices have also increased 8.6% since February 2021 and will likely rise by 5.5%-6.5%.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears the beginning of its third month, experts are worried the conflict will push the world into a food crisis.

According to CNN, two weeks after the invasion the price of “key agricultural products produced in the region skyrocketed.” The region produces 30% of the world’s wheat is a pantry staple. Fertilizer is needed by farmers around the world for their crops, but it is now exorbitantly priced and exports from Russia have stopped.

Agriculture ministers from the G7 are taking steps to address the potential food shortage. In a statement they urged countries “keep their food and agricultural markets open and to guard against nay unjustified restrictive measures on their exports … Any further increase in food price levels and volatility in international markets could threaten food security and nutrition at a global scale, especially among the most vulnerable living in environments of low food security.”

And that is why Barbara Washington and others were eager to offer help for Easter celebrations and beyond.

She explained, “People can’t afford to do just their necessities so with Total Man and the rest of the sponsors and partners, we have been able to gather, we made a decision that we’re going to make sure that we’re there for those times that people forget. But nobody does Easter so every year from now on, we will do an Easter food drive. We’ll do a Thanksgiving food drive. And then in September, we’ll do a fun day for the kids and provide school supplies.”