 We like to put a spin on Giving Tuesday and use the day to show our appreciation for the people and organizations who help us connect communities for better health through Good Food Policy, Local Food, Mental Heath, Youth Advocacy and Active Communities. We're so grateful for all of you! Special thanks go to our board of directors for supporting KC Healthy Kids as volunteers and donors (denoted with an asterisk).
 Speak Out Today
1. Support the Build Back Better Act. This historic budget reconciliation package includes important food system provisions. It expands and extends child nutrition assistance programs, like free school meals and Summer EBT, and the Child Tax Credit, which decreases child poverty. The legislation also invests in sustainable agriculture, rural development, urban agriculture and working lands conservation. Here are three easy ways to ask your Members of Congress to support the Build Back Better Act:
2. Help us build an equitable food system. Help identify relevant information to share and designate stakeholders to participate in food system equity assessment and planning. Use the Steering Committee Resource Guide to deepen your understanding of racial injustice and strategies for building an equitable and just food system for all. 3. Advocate for urban agriculture. Our Urban Farm Zoning and Planning Task Force published policy recommendations to improve planning and zoning for urban farming in the region. Read the report and learn how to get involved here. 4. Eliminate Kansas' Sales Tax on Food. Kansas has the second highest state sales tax on food. Tell your Kansas state representative and senators to eliminate the sales tax on food. Find more information and advocacy resources here. Use this sample social media post: Ending Kansas’ Food Sales Tax has bipartisan support – but it’s never been done before. Glad to see @GovLauraKelly announced a commonsense plan to ELIMINATE this tax and put more money in Kansans’ pockets. #AxeTheFoodTax #ksleg 5. Get ready for Child Nutrition Reauthorization. Congress is expected to pick up CNR in 2022, so brush up on the reauthorization process and all the nutrition programs funded through this legislation. Learn more about CNR at Food Research and Action Center. 6. Support food and farm workers. Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act has been passed by the House in 2020 and 2021, but the Senate has not taken up the bill. The PRO Act ensures workers have the right to organize and bargain for a living wage and safe working conditions. Join Food Chain Workers Alliance and other organizations in supporting workers across the food system. Message your Senators here. Everyday Actions 7. Find local food and farmers. Use the Eat Local KC map to eat local for the holidays and year-round. Farmers who wish to be included in the directory can apply for membership here. 8. Amplify alerts and events. Rapid policy changes mean action alerts are more important than ever. If you’ve attended our meetings but haven’t received advocacy alerts, check your spam folder and filter settings. Otherwise, sign up for our email list. 9. Network and collaborate. Attend our quarterly work group meetings and other coalition events. Our events are generally free and open to the public. Find events here. 10. Sustain effective advocacy. Coalition membership is free, but the work isn’t! Donations provide crucial support for costs that grants don’t cover, such as lobbying. Make a monthly or one-time donation here.  Beth Low-Smith testifies in support of good food policy in Kansas City, Missouri. Beth Low-Smith, KC Healthy Kids’ vice president for policy and director of the Greater KC Food Policy Coalition, was presented with the InnovateHER Lifetime Achievement award, which was established to recognize women who’ve paved the way for positive change in the Kansas City community. After completing the Women’s Studies program at MU, Beth moved to Kansas City to receive some on-the-job experience. A few years later her work for the Progressive Vote Coalition helped her grow deep roots in the community and to eventually led her to join KC Healthy Kids. Since then, Beth has served three terms as Missouri State Representative (2005-2010) serving a district that included Westport, the Country Club Plaza and part of Brookside, working as a domestic violence social worker, and serving as the Jackson County Democratic Committeewoman for Ward 6 since 2012. At KC Healthy Kids Beth engages stakeholders to shape policies that define our opportunities to eat well and be physically active throughout our lives. Beth also strives to change policies around urban agriculture and public transit and to shift state policies to improve community food security and local foods including SNAP, WIC, and school lunch programs — programs that have made a difference in her own life. Here are her comments from the awards ceremony: Thank you for this honor. At the risk of sounding trite, I am humbled to receive a lifetime achievement award. I’ve tried to live up to Teddy Roosevelt’s advice to “work hard at work worth doing,” but I think it is often difficult to know whether you are actually making a difference while you’re in the midst of such efforts. So it is truly an honor to look up from my tasks and find that others admire and respect my efforts.
My career has been quite varied, but the unifying thread has been working with others to change policy. In other words, I’ve specialized in group projects. That means sharing the credit—or occasionally the blame—for any achievement. There’s a long list of people whose love, encouragement, wisdom, grace and generosity contributed to every achievement. They have not only made my work possible, they make the work worth doing. My parents, Jim and Diane, blessed me with unconditional love and support that gave me the courage and tenacity I’ve needed. They also raised me with a fierce commitment to justice and mutual responsibility. Over the years, I’ve been blessed to work with people who share that commitment, and who inspire me each day to build the kind of community we all deserve. I’ve learned from brilliant supervisors and coworkers such as John, Gretchen, Sarah, Heather, Miranda, Andrea and many others. I’ve also found teachers among the countless volunteers and stakeholders involved in campaigns and coalitions with which I’ve worked, such as the Greater KC Food Policy Coalition. Throughout my career I’ve drawn from these wells to build an extraordinary community of friends and mentors who sustain me: Crystal, Brook, MaryEllen, Alexis, Susan, Judy, Joni, Todd, Amy, Sarah, Amanda, Kirsten and many other BABS. Finally, my husband, Dwight, whose patience and generosity allow me to devote a massive amount of time to my work and our community. These people are both my daily inspiration and reward. Thank you to InnovateHer for recognizing the merit of our collective efforts. Buckle up, because we are just getting started. InnovateHER KC is a 4,600+ member leadership community, serving a diverse, passionate and highly engaged network of women and individuals from marginalized gender communities. They focus on equity, inclusion and low-barrier-to-entry through their five pillars of social connection, professional development, championship, mentorship, and resource sharing.  Luis Colon delivers care kits to Cotton Candy Daycare in KCMO. Thanks to Cerner Charitable Foundation, early care centers partnering with KC Healthy Kids for trauma-informed training will receive Care Kits. The kits provide families facing difficult times with age appropriate personal items for their children.
Our case worker, Luis Colón, recently visited Cotton Candy Daycare to drop off the kits, which include onesies, handmade blankets, bottles and binkies, which can play a key role in helping children have a sense of security and comfort. “We are thankful to be able to share Cerner’s Care Kits and are happy to be a part of their work,” said Danielle Robbins-Gregory. “This is another way to help the families at our partnering centers feel cared for.” The early care centers have received trauma-informed care training through several grants secured by KC Healthy Kids. The training gives staff the opportunity to support children by emphasizing trauma-sensitive principles including safety, trust, collaboration and empowerment, ultimately helping kids develop healthy relationships. The Cerner Charitable Foundation focuses on three key areas: health, home and heroes, to help build a healthier tomorrow and stronger communities. At KC Healthy Kids, we partner with Cerner because their core competency of health aligns with our programming. Currently we have received a total of 300 care kits to disperse to early care centers over the next 6 months.  Luwillis Canada — she goes by Ms. Lu — is an early education director who believes that along with their ABCs and 123s, kids need to know their carrots, tomatoes and cantaloupes too! That’s why Canada’s Child Care Center in Kansas City, Missouri has a garden where kids can plant, tend, harvest and eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Families and teachers are invited to visit the garden and harvest food to take home, but during the pandemic, job losses and food supply problems meant Ms. Lu’s families needed more than the garden could provide. When she heard about KC Healthy Kids’ free farm box delivery, she signed up right away. Every other week, families received bundles of fresh produce, eggs, dairy and meat from local farmers. “You know, I was born in Arkansas and my parents had a big farm and they also raised a big garden. I was raised on fruits and vegetables, and so I knew how it would benefit a child to have that too,” Ms. Lu said. Across the metro, about 200 families at partnering early care centers signed up for farm shares. Not only was the bountiful box full of healthy, delicious foods, it was also delivered to their early care center, so busy parents didn’t have to make another stop on the way home. KC Healthy Kids purchased the food and partnered with the Kansas City Food Hub to have the farm shares assembled and delivered. So by signing up for farm shares, families helped local farmers by providing them with income and way to keep their crops from dying in the field. You can help Ms. Lu feed her kids healthy, locally-grown produce and keep area farmers in business when you support KC Healthy Kids’ Local Food programs like this one.  Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II recently visited with KC Healthy Kids to share his perspective on the power of youth voices and to hear about kids’ proposals to make their schools and communities healthier. “Change, in the history of this planet, has almost always been brought about by young people,” he said. “The world depends on young people because their minds are fresh and they have a level of daring” He told how, at age 15, he led the first civil rights march in Wichita Falls when 50 students joined him in protesting segregated movie theaters there. He also shared a foolproof tactic for getting the attention of elected officials -- kids need to do the talking! “Nobody, nobody wants to get on the bad side of kids,” he said, “You have much more power than you believe.” The visit was made possible through a grant from Healthy Blue, a leading managed care provider of health benefits for Missouri’s MO HealthNet (Medicaid) program, which serves more than 300,000 Medicaid members with innovative solutions and services for affordable and reliable healthcare. Representative Cleaver reviewed proposals by students from Central Middle School, EPiC Elementary, Banneker Elementary and Foreign Language Academy. The projects won first place or received honorable recognition in KC Healthy Kids’ Champions for Health Challenge. You can see all the winning proposals with photos here.
“Healthy Blue is proud to support KC Healthy Kids and the Champions for Health Challenge,” said Jeff Davis, plan president, Healthy Blue. “We remain committed to providing our local youth with tools and resources to promote and encourage healthy and productive lifestyles. Through this initiative, students were able to engage alongside their peers with brain-stimulating activity that will create and improve overall quality of life that furthers our mission of building healthier communities.” Emanuel Cleaver II has represented Missouri's Fifth Congressional District in Washington, DC for over 15 years. Before that, he was a city council member and the first Black mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. One of Representative Cleaver’s biggest accomplishments was establishing a Green Impact Zone. That project brought resources and money into under-resourced neighborhoods to rebuild curbs and sidewalks, fix up houses and make them energy efficient, and create jobs. Today he’s going to talk about why your voice matters and how to engage your decision makers to make change in your community  The Urban Farm Zoning and Planning Task Force just released their report From the Ground Up: Planning and Zoning for Urban Agriculture in Greater Kansas City. The report is a tool for urban planners, city staff, urban farmers and advocates to use to address the biggest barriers to urban agriculture in the Kansas City region.
The first section of this report gives an overview of urban agriculture and its benefits. The second section provides best practices and resources to plan for urban agriculture. The third section outlines seven barriers and offers policy recommendations and case studies to support urban agriculture. The Greater KC Food Policy Coalition established the task force in April 2020 to improve community food security by identifying and advocating for planning and zoning policies that ensure urban farmers are able to operate successfully. Moving forward, the report will inform the coalition's work to advocate for policy change. If you'd like to join us in advocating for urban agriculture, fill out this form and we'll be in touch.  Until today, Missouri was one of the few states that did not participate in the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program. Thanks to State Rep. Martha Stevens, State Sen. Lauren Arthur and advocates across the state, legislation establishing the program passed as an amendment to House Bill 432.
WIC FMNP is a federally funded program that provides WIC participants with coupons to purchase fresh, local fruits and vegetables at farmers markets. It puts healthy food within reach for moms and kids while injecting federal dollars into local economies across Missouri. "This bill is a win for families, farmers, and local economies around the state," Stevens said. "This measure provides direct support for women and children and helps address the serious issue of food insecurity in our state." WIC participants include low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children up to 5 years of age who are found to be at nutritional risk. Feeding America estimates over 290,000 Missouri kids were food insecure in 2020. House Bill 432 also establishes the Missouri Food Security Task Force to make recommendations to improve food access and ensure food security for urban and rural communities.  Updated: Kansas City, Missouri City Council passed the ordinance this evening. In 1912, Kansas City, Missouri became the first city to criminalize pedestrians in public streets. Today city council members will vote on an ordinance that would reverse that traffic law. It would also exempt people using active transportation, like bikes and scooters, from being ticketed for dirty or muddy tires and no longer allow cyclists to be stopped for a bike inspection.
While we want to ensure that kids and teens are safe to walk and bike, these laws does little to protect their safety. Reporters in Jacksonville, Florida analyzed five years of data but found "no strong relationship between where tickets are being issued and where [pedestrians] are being killed." What they did find was that enforcement of pedestrian laws disproportionately impacted Black people and people in low-income neighborhoods. The same inequitable trends have been observed in other cities. It is also unreasonable to punish people for walking in the street when many neighborhoods still lack safe and accessible sidewalks, especially in under-resourced and Black and Brown neighborhoods. Because of this, some street safety experts have argued for decriminalizing walking and biking. There are better ways to decrease pedestrian injuries and fatalities. That's why we advocate for policies, like Complete Streets, that invest in sidewalks, streets and public spaces that are safe and accessible for all users. Learn how jaywalking became a crime and why we advocate for streets designed for people.  By Nancy Osborn, Ph.D., Psychologist/Trainer Early childhood education centers are among the hardest hit services during this current pandemic. Some have closed temporarily, and some have closed permanently. All of the centers have had to make major changes in their operations as they follow recommended guidelines for child care programs. There have also been major decreases in the number of children coming into the centers, either because of parents’ understandable concerns about COVID 19, or countless other stressors that they are facing such as unemployment, housing instability, etc. What makes these challenges particularly heartbreaking is that early childhood educators are still caring for our children, whether the children are there or not — they have compassion toward the children they care for and they, as many of us, are concerned about the children’s safety and their emotional and social development during this time. Early childhood educators remain engaged with the children and families. Educating caregivers about trauma KC Healthy Kids has received several grants, including one from Health Forward Foundation, to educate early childhood teachers and staff about trauma-informed care. Trauma-informed care is a perspective that educates people about how widespread trauma is, how trauma impacts people, and how to sensitively and safely approach others. KC Healthy Kids’ trauma-informed care training began in February 2020, and it couldn’t have come at a more relevant time. It is important for early childhood educators to recognize that children and families have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and to use trauma-sensitive principles to support children and their parents. Through our training, we demonstrate that challenging behavior may be a sign that a child has experienced trauma. They have been impacted by what has happened to them and have developed behaviors that help them cope or get their needs met. This can result in behaviors that are challenging to comprehend and, for early childhood educators in particular, to manage. If educators embody trauma-sensitive principles, they can show a child that the world is actually safer than he or she may believe. Trauma-sensitive principles emphasize the importance of safety, trust through transparency, voice and choice, collaboration and empowerment. When people approach others with these principles in mind, it can lead to the development of healthy relationships. Developing healthy relationships is crucial in early childhood education (and any other kind of setting) and can lead to healing. Another important facet of our trauma-informed care education is teaching self-care to caregivers. There is no doubt that early childhood educators are impacted by the trauma the children have experienced in their lives so it is particularly important that these teachers understand the impact of trauma, learn trauma-sensitive principles, and to take good care of themselves. It is also important for early childhood staff to recognize that they are impacted by all of the stressors that they may have experienced in their past as well as what they and their own families are experiencing now. Managing these stressors, recognizing when they are overwhelmed, and practicing good self-care will most likely help them make better decisions; keep their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions better regulated; and ultimately help them in their work, home, and personal lives. Education for families Families that may have already experienced trauma are additionally burdened by the upheaval caused by the pandemic. Even families without a history of trauma are currently stressed by the new roles they have had to take on, in addition to following guidelines recommended by the CDC and the scientific community. This stress can certainly impact mental health, which can result in atypical behaviors for children and adults. Fortunately, through the grants KC Healthy Kids has received, parents will also have the opportunity to receive trauma-informed training and education. Get involved Early childhood educators interested in this training can contact me directly at ncosborn@kchealthykids.org. If parents have specific concerns about their child, they can contact their local community mental health center. See our list of Mental Health Resources This post was originally published on Health Forward Foundation's blog in 2020 as part of a series.
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