Feeding the hungry in Geary County was the overall focus for multiple organizations who met during a FEAST ( Food-Education- Agriculture-Solutions-Together ) meeting on Saturday at the C. L. Hoover Opera House.

Miranda Klugesherz, Chair of the Junction City Food Policy Council, said hunger in Geary County is massive. “It’s estimated that about one in every five individuals suffers from food insecurity in Geary County so this is really an issue that I’m not sure a lot of the people in the county are necessarily aware of , but it is extremely pressing.”

A recent study released by the Kansas Health Foundation ranked Geary County as the most food insecure , meaning hungry county in the state.

During the session on Saturday participants divided up into three sub-groups that focused on areas ranging from transportation and education to marketing.

Julie Hettinger served with the education group. “We found that there was a need to collaborate more among organizations that do education. We do have Live Well Geary County which is a group that comes together and meets on a monthly basis, but we decided we needed to have kind of a sub-working group just on education that comes together and says here’s what we bring to the table. We know you do this, but how can we collaborate more on what we’re doing in the community.”

Ideas generated during the session from the different sub-groups ranged from establishing monitors in waiting rooms, at the food pantry, and other locations where education is needed to researching other communities who are addressing hunger and development of a marketing campaign on local healthy food access.

Vision goals that were set ranged from educating the community on all aspects of the food process to developing an inventory for existing food education resources.