KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 News anchor Rae Daniel covers stories across Kansas City with a focus on community groups and highlighting fun things to do on the weekends. Share your idea with Rae by email.
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Kanbe's Markets delivers fresh produce to low-food-access areas across Kansas City using its delivery trucks.
"These trucks right behind me, they go out to over 125 small businesses, so corner convenience stores all around the city that are kind of the only access point for fresh, healthy and affordable food for many of our neighbors," Kanbe's Markets founder, Maxfield Kaniger, said.
However, last week, someone cut a hole through its warehouse fence, stealing catalytic converters from five of the nonprofit's delivery trucks.
"Things are hard right now, and people are needing to find ways to make money, make a living, and unfortunately, that sometimes means stealing from us," Kaniger said.
Now, their trucks are out of commission, and the organization is now using rentals to make sure food is delivered.
"These are specialty refrigerated trucks, so we make sure that everything that all the food that goes out is fresh food, and so we've gotta make sure that it stays at the right temperature the whole way through," Kaniger said. "So it's a specialized vehicle that we need to get this food out."
The rental trucks alone are roughly $20,000, not including the cost of replacing five catalytic converters for their delivery trucks.
"It's a big expense, but we've made a commitment to make sure there's food all throughout our community, and we want to stand by that commitment," Kaniger said.
Kaniger says there are roughly 250,000 people in their service area every month they are getting food to.
Now they need the community's help to ensure that the service continues.
"At kanbesmarkets.org, you can sign up to volunteer," Kaniger said. "As things take more time to organize with fewer trucks, the more hands we can have here to help really get good food out, the better."
And they're already seeing the community show up in unique and tasty ways.
"We have 250 people showing up today, thanks to Pam and Ted from Buck Tui and Muni, they're putting together a crawfish boil and BBQ for us to help us raise money to keep this thing going," Kaniger said. "That's the outpouring of support that we see from Kansas City, and the food community has really shown us a lot of love."
As the community steps up, they say it's a reminder of why this work matters so much.
"I love people, and I love the way food brings people together, and being able to share that experience of really, really good food with your family is the most important thing to me," Kaniger said. "And the thought that anybody would go without food, when we have so much of it in this country, is unacceptable to me. So no matter what happens to these trucks, we're gonna make sure even if we have to throw it in the back of our own cars, we're going to make sure food gets out to people."
Kanbe's Markets is looking at roughly $50,000 in damages. To learn more about how to help, click here.
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