KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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For the past two summers, I have shared Bobby Hines's efforts to make sure Blue Springs children stay fed over the summer break. I returned for a third year to follow him around on his daily tour.
Every weekday starting at 11 a.m., Hines loads up his nonprofit's van, a new asset this year, and drives through Blue Springs, dropping off free sacked lunches to children at pre-identified apartment complexes and hotels. The program runs through Aug. 21 and is funded entirely by donations through his nonprofit, the You Matter Movement.
This summer, Hines has added a new component to the effort, working with another local nonprofit, Many Parts, One Body.
"We implemented a grocery program this year to where we were able to add some apartment communities and we've put, we're gonna put up to 70 families on our grocery program," Hines said.
Despite the addition of the grocery program, demand for the individual lunches has not slowed down. Hines said he expected numbers to dip during the summer school season, but that has not been the case.
"I thought that the neighborhood number or the, the community numbers would go down as far as the individual lunches, especially this time of year with summer school being in, it's, it's usually the numbers are pretty down, but numbers are already up," Hines said within just the first week. He totaled 532 lunches delivered.
At the first apartment complex on Friday, at least 7 children were already waiting when the car pulled up. Hines handed out 63 lunches there. At the second stop, the crowd was still steady — with at least 30 people receiving lunches.
Hines said this is one of the longest summers on for local kids, who had little to no snow days and are returning to school a week later than usual. He said that reality drives him to keep growing.
"It feels like it's getting tougher. That's why it was important for us to identify some kids in the neighborhoods as well, because just because they're not living in a hotel or not living in an apartment community or something like that, you know, the refrigerators are still empty," Hines said.
Hines needs donations to keep this going. Items like individual chip and snack packages, bagged pasta, boxed meals, and canned goods can be dropped off at Sandy's Restaurant and Banquet Room in Blue Springs. Hines is hosting a BBQ, Car Show and Food Drive on Sunday, June 7 at Sandy's starting at 4:00 PM. You can also email encouragement@umattermovement.org for other ways to donate and volunteer.
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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