Geary and Riley counties are the two most food insecure counties in the state.

The Food Policy Council is looking for ways to address this issue.

“It’s a three or four legged stool – there’s the marketing side, the transportation side, the production side, there’s the education side of it – so we’re trying to bring all these pieces together,” said Jim Schmidt, Food Policy Council member.

“We’re starting to look out and ask other people what are some lessons learned, because we don’t need to reinvent the wheel on this, we just need to our current problem as it sits today and try to find the best solution that we can find locally.”

Part of the solution involves less government regulation according to Congressman Roger Marshall.

“I trust your School Board members, and the people that are in charge of the nutrition programs [here] to figure out what do we have access to that we can fill their plates [with],” said Marshall. “I understand, that there’s this perfect diet out there that a scientist would come up with, but that’s not always practical; when you’re a single mom with three kids, sometimes you just have to get the cheapest calories that you can to put in their tummy – but I do think there’s some good nutrition options out there, but I just want to free up any type of control we have to let [you all] figure out what’s the best to do in our county.”

Keith Ascher, County Commissioner, said that understanding the “why” of the problem is most difficult.

“Here we are in the breadbasket of the world, why do we have kids going hungry,” Asher asked. “There’s no quick fix, we have to find a long-term solution.”

According to the Kansas Health Foundation, about 1 in 5 people in Geary County experience hunger.

Marshall, Schmidt, and Ascher’s remarks were made at the Geary County Farm Bureau Luncheon held on February 24th.