KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers Johnson County. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of healthcare, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.
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Through KSHB 41's annual Fill the Fridge campaign with Harvesters, you can donate fresh, perishable foods to communities in need.
The regional food bank serves 27 Kansas and Missouri counties and delivers 52 million meals a year. Harvesters operates on the motto that hunger has no boundaries, but rising costs of food and fuel are making that mission harder, and more important, to fulfill.
"There are a lot of people that are making very hard choices right now," Debbie Espinosa said.
Espinosa, the president and CEO of Harvesters, said the food bank is feeling the financial strain directly. She said it takes 200 gallons of fuel to fill up one of the organization's 17 trailers, and those trailers log over 475,000 miles a year delivering food to people in need.
"We're suffering as the food bank from that cost of diesel going up," Espinosa said.
I walked through some of the regional food bank's operations in Kansas City with Communications Manager Matt Hamer.
"We're the ones sourcing the food, processing it, storing it, and then distributing it," Hamer said. "As we're talking about rising costs, people don't necessarily factor in that because we're buying full truckloads of food, freight factors into that."
Espinosa said it all comes down to food, friends, and funds. It's why she said a full plate fills the need now more than ever, helping make difficult choices a little easier.
"It really is helping a lot of people not have to make those extreme choices. That's the meaning of our work," Espinosa said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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