Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Flint Hills Breadbasket on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 259
We talk with Flint Hills Breadbasket’s Carla Hegemeister about the Thanksgiving surge, the shockwaves from SNAP uncertainty, and how a bigger space and tight partnerships kept up with record demand. We share details on the community meal, holiday hours, and simple ways to help.
• Thanksgiving as peak season for donations, volunteers, and holiday meal support
• Holiday week schedule, turkey pickup times, and office-only days
• Community Thanksgiving meal hours, location, and inclusive purpose
• Volunteer capacity filled early, ongoing needs beyond the holiday
• New facility enabling higher throughput and safer distribution
• SNAP shocks and shutdown uncertainty driving mid to high 800s weekly families
• Rising demand among military and furloughed federal workers
• Forthcoming SNAP administration changes and state cost burdens
• HUD shifts likely to tighten rent support and raise risk of food insecurity
• Nonprofits coordinating to avoid tunnel vision and share resources
• Christmas focused on stability, not extra meat distributions
• Lighted parade as a food and funds driver
• Clear ways to help through drives, volunteering, and donations
FlintHillsBreadbasket.org is where you can find out more information
You can always find out more about the work of the foundation on our website at mcfks.org
Philanthropy today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back. It's the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. And Carla Hegemeister is the executive director of the Flint Hills Breadbasket. And my goodness, the breadbasket has been going through a lot of change, and uh there's all kinds of things, you know, that and and and I think I heard a report the other day about uh more customers coming in because of SNAP benefits and cutbacks, and we'll address that, but uh we'll talk a little bit about first about Thanksgiving. We're in that week. We are and that's a big time for the Flynn's breadbasket and the people that uh utilize it.
SPEAKER_00:It is. Um, before I came in here, I was speaking out front and just visiting about the fact that Thanksgiving is our busiest, busiest time of year. Um, this really is our peak season. Um, once we get past Thanksgiving, people's minds move from food. So Thanksgiving is your food holiday. And then Christmas is more of your making sure you have gifts for people and and that sort of thing. So Thanksgiving for us is probably the highest of the high as far as the number of donations coming in, people looking to volunteer and engage with us in different ways, and then also the number of people who are needing that support to make sure that they have the special things for their holiday meal. So we are at the the maybe hopefully the crest of the wave right now. We'll see.
SPEAKER_01:The crest of the wave. What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the the waves just keep coming, they don't stop, but maybe we're at the peak of it. So then we'll come in into shore and have a little bit of a glide. Um, maybe not, probably not a glide, but maybe we'll just kind of ease up just a tiny bit, probably not a lot, but maybe a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:What time frames do you have this week for people to know about?
SPEAKER_00:So we're open for regular shopping hours today and tomorrow. So Monday from 10 to 3, Tuesday from 10 to 6. Um for folks that did not pick up their holiday meat last week. Um, we do have turkeys available still. So they can stop in both of those days today or tomorrow. Wednesday, we will have just our regular office hours. Um, so we won't be doing a shopping floor, we won't be doing the market, and then Thursday and Friday will be closed for the holiday. The flip of that is that on Thursday, the breadbasket is co-hosting and co-sponsoring the community Thanksgiving meal with common table. So there's still a chance for families to come out and um have a holiday meal if they didn't pick something up at the breadbasket or want to just be in community with other people. Um, it's not simply for somebody who can't afford food. It's that common community table, community table, common table, breadbasket, community meal on Thanksgiving Day is really intended to be for anybody who wants to come and have some company on Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01:What a great benefit common table has become to this community.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. We love the fact that at this place, um, really it's returning home. The Thanksgiving meal in its origin was at 901 points. Was it? Yes. If you go back far enough, um, I remember it far enough.
SPEAKER_01:How back is far enough?
SPEAKER_00:Well, my recollection of the community Thanksgiving meal was at Old Chicago, but not old Chicago on the west side, but old Chicago up where Sinkers is now. Um but prior to that, it was at 901 points.
SPEAKER_01:So I think I remember that.
SPEAKER_00:If you really go far, far back, that's where we did it.
SPEAKER_01:So I came here in 91. I think that that's yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it's really a homecoming for it to come back to that location. It will um, you know, it's a great opportunity for our guests to um, you know, have that continuity for us to be able to cook in the same building that we're serving in. That will be a definite um asset for us. But then also for people who maybe are not in that building very often for one reason or another, that they've not been at the Lincoln Education Center since we modified it, since the school district renovated it. So at least to get people back into that building and recognize that that our spaces within the building or within the community oftentimes serve more than one purpose and serve more than one group of people.
SPEAKER_01:Are there enough volunteers for Thursday?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, 100%. Um, again, this is the time of year where people do want to engage in that and our volunteer spots for that activity really actually fill up almost as soon as we post it.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, good. What time is that?
SPEAKER_00:11 to 2 on Thursday. So we start serving the meal at 11 o'clock, and we'll be wrapping up with our last service right around two.
SPEAKER_01:And by the way, uh for those that have never been to Common Table there at uh the old ninth grade center, the old high school, depending on how far back you want to go, um, the entry is in the south doors.
SPEAKER_00:That's correct. It's door number six. So it's on the south side of the building closest to Fort Riley Boulevard. Um, there is construction in that area right now. So just allow yourself a little bit of time to navigate around the building. Um, but we're we're really excited for it.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Let's talk a bit about the the tough stuff right now. Okay. Government shutdown, snap benefits, layoffs or you know, pay. How's that affected you?
SPEAKER_00:Um, so since we moved to our new location, we've been seeing more people anyway. Um, as we've all commented, the grocery prices are higher. Um, we're seeing more people that need the support no matter what. But when we came to October when the shutdown happened, we really saw that just skyrocket. Um, we saw the number of military members we were serving increase. We saw uh federal employees who who were furloughed and didn't know if or when a paycheck was coming. We saw an increase in that population. And then we saw folks who um maybe have have stamp benefits that allowed them to not need the help of the breadbasket. But that uncertainty about when stamp benefits or if SNAP benefits would be coming brought them through our doors. And so um the month of October into early November has really been a huge increase in the number of people that we're serving every week. Um I've told people in the summertime, summer months, we were serving more than 600 families a week. Um then in September we went into the 700s, and right now we're in the mid to high 800s. Wow. Last week were we were at 950.
SPEAKER_01:That's a 25, 30% increase, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:It is.
SPEAKER_01:You able to keep up with the demand?
SPEAKER_00:We are. Um again, I've said many times this year that the move to a new location couldn't have come at a better time for us to have the amount of space that we have to serve the number of visitors that we're serving in the course of a day. Last Tuesday, which this isn't too surprising because it was day two of turkey distribution. So we knew it was going to be busy. But in an eight-hour day, we served 330 families. And there is just no physical way that we could have done that at our old location on Yuma. So the move, the fact that the community supported us to make that move happen, and that we were able to do it with our partners as quickly as we did with our volunteers, our community, and that our community has really stepped up to make sure that we have food coming in just as fast as it's going out.
SPEAKER_01:You think about all the things that have happened in the last few years, and you've been in the job, what, three years?
SPEAKER_00:Three and a half. It'll be four in March.
SPEAKER_01:And there's been a tremendous amount of change.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Um, you know, obviously the move is one thing. And here recently, of course, with the government shut down and and like what we had talked about, the the increased demand. What are some of the things that you uh kind of anticipate or maybe even fear for the future of people that need the help of the Flint Hills bread basket and other organizations is like that?
SPEAKER_00:So uh we're kind of, I think, just moving from one fire to another. But um right now when we talk about SNAP benefits, those have been solidified to an extent uh through next fall. Through the um when the government reopened, they made a the passage or they made it so that the SNAP benefits were were set through next fall. But that doesn't take into effect or into account the changes to SNAP with the error rate and all those changes that were already part of the the House bill that will change how um benefits are paid for in the sense that the state will have a higher burden of carrying the administrative cost of SNAP benefits going forward starting this October. So that change is coming down the pipeline. Um, every state is going to have to figure out how they're going to manage that, how they're going to address whatever their error rate might be. Um, and we don't have a whole lot of insight yet into how that will happen and how those rules will be administered. At the same time, um, so the like I said, the most recent emergency has been centered around food and SNAP. That's where we were talking about the last couple months. Um but flip that around and go forward, fast forward a couple of months, changes to HUD, um housing urban development funding and their priorities when it comes to serving homeless people or people who are reliant upon some sort of subsidy, whether it's um housing choice vouchers or um public housing, there's some changes coming down that road that will impact people's capacity to pay rent, who are really on that most limited income. And so again, these are the same population of people. So maybe now their food is more secure, but something is gonna change in how much support they have for rent. Well, if you're talking about that same population of people, then they're going to be trying to figure out how do I pay rent or how do I stay housed. And so there's only so many dollars for them to go around. Um, so I think we're gonna be talking about that soon. And we're gonna be talking about the fact that dollars in the past that they would have spent of their own income to go towards food is going to have to go towards rent or housing costs or electricity costs, um, stuff like that. So so really the population that we serve is being strained at it at all sides. And there's not wiggle room in their budget, there's not wiggle room in their day-to-day life to really have capacity to absorb those increased costs or those changes. And so um, it's just that it's that puzzle that you move one piece and it's Tetris. You know, you don't change one thing without changing something else and having some other impact. And so for us as nonprofits, we're we're all really communicating with each other, we're talking with each other about what does that look like and how do we support each other and how do we not have tunnel vision? And how do we not just have our head down all the time, so focused on ourselves and our own mission that we're not paying attention to the greater landscape of what's happening in the community.
SPEAKER_01:We have just a couple of minutes left. We hadn't talked about Christmas.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So what's that plan?
SPEAKER_00:Really, for us, Christmas looks like normal activities when we don't do necessarily an additional um holiday meat distribution during Christmas. Um, we'll have some changes to our hours as we come up to that holiday week. But really, what we're focused on at this point is stability. We want people to um to be able to know that that we are trustworthy of both their their of the service that we're providing to people and the stewardship of the food and funds that they're giving us, that we're being good with it.
SPEAKER_01:And you got the parade coming up. That's a big day too.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. The lighted holiday parade is coming on December 5th. That's a great opportunity to come out and um celebrate the holidays with your family. The parade has always been connected with the breadbasket, and they're we are putting a bigger emphasis this year on making sure that those parade entries, entrance, the entrance to the parade, um, really do have either a food donation or a monetary donation to the breadbasket. So we're really looking forward to that. I've I've heard wind of a couple of organizations that really plan to uh light a fire and do that parade this year.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We're excited to see it.
SPEAKER_01:Last question quickly. I know that that there's probably a simple answer. How can we help the Flynn's breadbasket this time of year?
SPEAKER_00:Always um share the word, share what's happening, pay attention to what's happening in the community. Um, know that there's people in need year-round and that those people are your friends, your family, your neighbors, your coworkers. And um, any way that you can help, whether it's through a food drive, through volunteering, through a donation, we're happy to have it. And we're just, again, always grateful for the community support.
SPEAKER_01:Well, happy holidays to you and your family and all those at the Flint Hills Breadbasket. Flint Hillsbreadbasket.org is where you can find out more information. I bet there's a place where you you can go online and make a contribution. Absolutely. I bet there is on that page. John Poulson is coming in next on the GMCF Community Hour here on behalf of Sunflower Children's Collective. This is the GMCF Community Hour. You can always find out more about the work of the foundation on our website at mcfks.org.