Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Second Harvest Food Bank are highlighting opportunities for residents to donate to those in need this giving season.
Residents showed up bright and early Thursday for the 13th annual Turkey Day, where Second Harvest Community Food Banks provided Thanksgiving meal items to those in need.
Affording groceries can be a tough task for many in St. Joseph, and Second Harvest Community Food Bank is highlighting the importance of giving back to families in need this
By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostFilm students at Missouri Western State University will take the Griffon Film Festival to the public for the first time this Friday.Professor Toby Lawrence says though this is the 7th annual Griffon Film Festival, it's the first time students have shown their films to the public. The festival gets underway at the Missouri Theater in downtown St. Joseph Friday evening."So the first half of the program will be like the family-friendly section," Lawrence tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. "Then, we'll have a quick intermission, like 10 minutes, and then some of the other films that might have some more adult themes will show. We'll have an award ceremony. We're even going to have a Q and A with the students, the film makers, so they can all come up and respond if the audience has questions."Lawrence says graduates of the Missouri Western program can go into a variety of careers, from Hollywood to local commercials or any position that uses videos extensively.Mackenzie Osborn, a senior from Savannah, says her experience in the Performing and Cinematic Arts program helped her land her position as Communications Coordinator for the Second Harvest Community Food Bank in St. Joseph."My ability to use the camera and my ability to use the editing software that we got. It kind of helped me there," Osborn tells Birr. "A couple of us have had professional jobs up in Kansas City already, working on film productions, doing commercials, or production assistant jobs."Nine films will be shown in all. Two are documentaries, but the remaining films offer a wide range of themes, from romance to sci fi."The interesting part is that all of these are very different styles," according to Osborn. "So, every 10 to 12 minutes is going to be a completely different experience for people who are attending."The film festival at the Missouri Theater gets underway at five o'clock Friday evening. Students, both high school and college, get in for free. Otherwise, it's $5 at the door.
Photo provided by Second Harvest By MATT PIKE St. Joseph Post Second Harvests volunteer week is helping give volunteers more opportunities to help out those who are food insecure. Second Harvest Volunteer Coordinator Andrew Foster says Second Harvest serves 19 counties, with 15 in Missouri and 4 in Kansas, serving 30,000 pounds of food a day. Foster says Second Harvest provides many different nonperishable food items, but it also serves some fresh produce. "We understand as families are struggling financially, if they are living on a fixed income and they are at the grocery store right now as food prices and costs have increased so dramatically," Foster tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "If they're living on that tight income, most often they're skipping fresh fruits and veggies because they're just so expensive." Foster says the produce is donated by stores, or even at times, from individuals. With more food being demanded in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, Second Harvests volunteer week is helping give volunteers more opportunities to help. Second Harvest is part of the Feeding America Food Bank and operates two mobile pantries, as well as at least one food pantry in each county. Foster says Second Harvest relies on its volunteers to help with the Fill-the-van food drives and campus cupboards at schools. Second Harvest also helps run the summer food programs while school is out. "So, we have what we call 'No Hunger Summer' where we provide sack lunches Monday through Friday most of the weeks through the summer, and kids across the region receive a free nutritious sack lunch," Foster says. "And it takes literally hundreds of volunteers to facilitate that programming." Second Harvest spokesperson Mackenzie Osborn says she started out as a Second Harvest volunteer, helping with its summer lunch program. "A lot of the other things you don't get to see the direct impact, but when I started pre-COVID, the kids would have to sit there, and they would tell you how thankful they were as they were eating, and how they may not have had any lunch that day if we had not brought them any food," Osborn says. This is Volunteer Week of Caring with extra volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups.
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