KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
—
Boots on the Ground Midwest hosted an event Saturday with over 50 nonprofits. The event aimed to provide the groups with resources and workshops to navigate the impacts of federal budget cuts and uncertainty.
The first of its kind was held in March. With a focus on Lenexa, it attracted over 700 volunteers.
“Our need is going up, while our resources are going down,” said Shanita McAfee-Bryant, who founded The Prospect KC, an organization that supports people experiencing barriers to employment and dealing with food insecurity. “I think the amount of organizations that you see here and the amount of people coming here speaks to the volume of the need.”
McAfee-Bryant said her organization needs both volunteer and financial support now more than ever.
“We need hands,” she said. “We’re taking a lot of hits right now. We’re losing our TEFAP funding, which has been significantly reduced as people are losing their SNAP benefits.”
TEFAP, or the Emergency Food Assistance Program, is a federal program that provides free USDA foods to low-income households and organizations like The Prospect KC.
“I would need about $40,000 a month in additional revenue in order to still continue to feed and sustain the community at the level that we are,” McAfee-Bryant said. “I am a chef by trade, being as creative as I possibly can with these limited resources to make sure that we can feed as many people as we can consistently.”
McAfee-Bryant said she’s doing everything she can to avoid decreasing the number of people she can support, especially this time of year.
“It’s summer in just a few days, and so all these young people and kids and families and seniors are going to be out of school,” she said. “Hunger does not take a summer break.”
The U.S. Senate will also be occupied this summer, primarily with making revisions to the “big, beautiful bill” the House passed in May.
House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke back in February about a portion of the bill, which would add certain work requirements for those on Medicaid.
“If you add work requirements into Medicaid, it makes sense to people, it’s common sense,” Johnson said.
Though the Trump administration has ensured Medicaid is not under attack, the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cuts leave groups like Little Lobbyists worrisome that these budget cuts will inevitably include Medicaid dollars.
“When I say a lot of us are terrified, I don’t mean that lightly,” said Melissa Sabin, an ambassador with Little Lobbyists' Kansas chapter, a group comprised of parents who have children with disabilities and complex medical needs.
Sabin said Medicaid has allowed her family to have dignity and avoid wallowing in medical debt.
“If we don’t fight for this and we lose those benefits, there will be kids and adults and people that don’t survive,” Sabin said. “For us, that’s very important.”
She showed up Saturday as a way to continue telling her story, one that she could see including many more dollar signs if cuts to Medicaid go into effect.
She said private paying her son's at-home nurse would cost about $90,000 a year. His medicines would be another $3,000 a year.
Sabin said that doesn’t include the cost of other necessary equipment or doctors visits.
Her advocacy currently serves to combat one thing.
“A lack of understanding of who is covered by Medicaid, what those benefits look like, but I tell people, ‘You know someone on it,’” Sabin said.
Another attendee Saturday was shocked to see just how many people showed up: Missouri House Rep. Pattie Mansur.
“What I didn’t expect when I got here was that I was going to have to park blocks [away] and that there would be this many people,” Mansur said.
The event took place in Mansur’s district, House District 25.
“We’re going through some difficult times, even in the state," she said. "People are worried about their healthcare, incredibly worried. Being in the capital in Jefferson City, that’s the people’s house. It’s everybody’s house.”
Mansur said that’s why she’s encouraging people to reach out to their local representatives.
She also encourages people to show up to fairs and mobilize their fear into action, a sentiment McAfee-Bryant sympathizes with.
“Sometimes people can’t pull themselves up by a boot because they don’t have a boot,” she said.
—