Kansas City’s cupboards most bare in America

With unemployment still rising, families who have never relied on a food bank before are becoming regular visitors.

In Kansas City, the demand for a few sacks of groceries has become so urgent that metro food pantries are considered among the hardest hit in the nation, according to this release.

In the Kansas City area there’s been an approximate 40 percent average increase in demand at food banks in the last year, says Ellen Feldhausen, director of communications for Harvesters.

Feldhausen’s organization collects and distributes food, working with more than 500 metro agencies including food pantries, soup kitchens, churches, residential facilities and daycare centers.