{"id":2575,"date":"2025-11-03T14:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:39:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:39:36","slug":"jccc-student-basic-needs-center-to-host-holiday-food-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2025\/11\/03\/jccc-student-basic-needs-center-to-host-holiday-food-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"JCCC Student Basic Needs Center To Host Holiday Food Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photo by: Jasmine Mills)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Has the usual JCCC student heard of the term \u201cfood insecurity?\u201d The term dovetails with \u201cfood deserts,\u201d another term in vogue nowadays. Both terms basically describe a dearth of food in one\u2019s life. These conditions are usually linked to persistent poverty or a lack of possible food options in the area one frequents and\/or lives. Think of the literal meaning of the term \u201cfood deserts.\u201d That is, imagine a place with so few eating options that it seems akin to a desert without an oasis. Such places do exist in Kansas City and are on both sides of the state line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feeding America<\/span><\/a> defines food insecurity as\u00a0 \u201cwhen people don\u2019t have enough to eat and don\u2019t know where their next meal will come from.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Along that definition, one could make a comparison to attempting to acquire food stamps and the uncertainty that such an action could entail.<\/span><\/p>\n

JCCC\u2019s Student Basic Needs Center is having a holiday food drive starting on Monday, Nov. 3. It is a dedicated e\ufb00ort to o\ufb00set this constraining condition. While not a cure-all, the drive hopes to help where it can and promote itself as more than a proverbial drop in the bucket. The food insecurity that people experience in Johnson County can be ameliorated somewhat by donating to this drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Miller, the SBNC\u2019s coordinator, said that certain items like pumpkin, cornbread and yams were preferred in terms of actual donations for the drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the drive\u2019s literal significance, Miller said that it was not in vain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe drive is so important because it raises awareness about food insecurity during the holiday season,\u201d Miller said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller also pointed out that financial donations would be welcome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are more than welcome to donate money if they would like to,\u201d Miller said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who are interested can donate securely <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Krystal Anton, the zero waste coordinator for the Center for Sustainability at JCCC, has her take on food insecurity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFood insecurity is when folks don\u2019t have enough to eat, and\/or do not know where their next meal will come from,\u201d Anton said. \u201cThis can be for various reasons, like homelessness, not enough money, lack of transportations or access to food.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lizzy Warner, a student at JCCC who has been involved with the campus environmental movement, has her own solid definition of what a food desert entails.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[A] food desert is a location where adequately nutritional food is unavailable,\u201d Warner said. <\/span>\u201cKansas City, MO, is a great example of a food desert.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The drive is scheduled to be from Nov. 3 to Dec. 22.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has the usual JCCC student heard of the term \u201cfood insecurity?\u201d The term dovetails with \u201cfood deserts,\u201d another term in vogue nowadays. Both terms basically describe a dearth of food in one\u2019s life. These conditions are usually linked to persistent poverty or a lack of possible food options in the area one frequents and\/or lives. Think of the literal meaning of the term \u201cfood deserts.\u201d That is, imagine a place with so few eating options that it seems akin to a desert without an oasis. Such places do exist in Kansas City and are on both sides of the state line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[218],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Saul Epstein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/sepstein\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_1793_optimized_2000.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/cyrus-moffett\/","display_name":"Cyrus Moffett"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 months ago","modified":"Updated 10 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 3, 2025","modified":"Updated on November 3, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 3, 2025 2:30 pm","modified":"Updated on November 3, 2025 2:39 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":218,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"cyrus-moffett","display_name":"Cyrus Moffett","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_1793_optimized_2000.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2587,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}