Social distancing requirements have made it difficult for a variety of businesses and programs to operate — including meal packaging efforts for food insecure individuals. As COVID-19 stay-at-home orders progressed volunteer groups began cancelling meal packaging events with The Outreach Program, a national nonprofit aiming to address hunger. This created a supply issue for food banks that still needed access to shelf-stable goods. Then, the Kansas National Guard stepped in. Rick McNary, vice president of strategic partnerships at The Outreach Program, received a call from the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, which was willing to fund production costs. KDEM informed McNary that the National Guard could be used as volunteers, since they were deployed and didn’t have to comply with social distancing guidelines as soldiers. Now, the guardsmen have packaged three million meals — currently working on the fourth million — for food insecure Kansans.
(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)
