Rural and Hungry

Kristen Hanks, who works in the Fort Osage school district cafeteria program, hands out lunches at Susquehanna Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri, a government-funded summer meal site. For children in the Kansas City metro area, food insecurity rises in the summer, but food sites like these are rare in rural areas. (Lindsay Huth | Flatland

  The rush hits at noon. That’s when kids start pouring into the gym at Susquehanna Baptist Church. On a scorching Wednesday last month, they lined up to choose their lunches: pizza, subs or PB&J. Most picked pizza. The Independence, Missouri, church is one of more than 350 summer food sites around Kansas City that…

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As High-Tech Farms Take Hold, Can Farm Towns Hold On?

The small town of Haxton, Colorado.

Brandon Biesemeier climbs up a small ladder into a John Deere sprayer, takes a seat in the enclosed cab, closes the door, and blocks out most of the machine’s loud engine hum. It is a familiar perch to the fourth-generation farmer on Colorado’s eastern plains. He turns onto a country road, heading south to spray…

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Great Plains Ranchers Look To Rebuild In Wake Of Massive Fires

a field

Gena Kirk did not realize the largest wildfire in Kansas history was closing in on the Kirk Ranch on March 6 until she got a call from her brother-in-law. After realizing that her herd was in danger, she jumped into her pickup and sped up the hill where several of her cattle were grazing. As…

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Corn Belt Farmers Wary As Leadership In Washington Shifts

As President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, goes in front of the Senate, it bucks a recent trend of Midwest leadership at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And it is making many in the farm country of the Midwest and Great Plans a little leery. Coupled with the…

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