ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
A new food program that aims to stretch the grocery dollars of its participants while promoting community service is making inroads in Marion County.
Prairie Land Food, Communities In Action program promotes volunteerism by offering food savings in a “Prairie Pak” once a month for a commitment to service, according to June Glasgow of Hillsboro, one of the developers of the program.
“Basically, what we wanted to do was provide really good food for people-but even more important, to make people more aware of being a volunteer, especially in our small communities,” Glasgow said Saturday as several dozen participants gathered at the Marion County Fairgrounds to pick up their Prairie Paks for February.
Prairie Land Food is a non-profit organization that started in September 2006. With its headquarters in Topeka, it currently serves communities in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
For $20, participants can sign up for a Prairie Pak, which contains a specified meat as well as fresh fruits and vegetables-participants know in advance what kind of food will be included.
The food is valued at about twice amount they pay, depending on one’s location, according to Glasgow.
“It’s a nice buy,” she said. “You always get at least a 50 percent savings if not more.”
In addition to their $20 payment, participants agree to perform two hours of community service for each Prairie Pak they order. Tasks can range from coaching a youth baseball team, to helping at church to visiting a nursing home-or whatever opportunities present themselves from day to day.
“It’s about the things that we do every day,” Glasgow said. “It’s not policed-it’s on the honor system. It’s just a matter of you becoming aware because you have to log it. And we keep track of it because that’s our criteria for our program.”
Each participant has the option of adding a dollar to the cost of a Prairie Pak.
“If we have a profit, it’s going to come back to the communities through scholarships and grants,” Glasgow said. “We’re hoping that this year we’ll be able to give one scholarship to each of the areas we’re serving.”
Glasgow said the group in Marion County grew from 44 participants last month to 77 this month. In additional to having several signup locations in Hillsboro, locations have been added in Goessel, Ramona, Lehigh and Canton.
“It’s awesome to see it grow and people becoming involved,” Glasgow said. “When they see the true mission, about being a volunteer-it’s not just a food box. It’s about much more than that.”
Christyn Schroeder, husband Todd and son Ronnie of rural Goessel have been participating since the program started.
“I just really believe in the program,” said Christyn, who logs volunteer time by working with Prairie Land Food as well as other avenues.
“It helps my money stretch a little further and it helps my family get a little better meal,” she said.
Schroeder said the money she saves by purchasing a Prairie Pak can be used to buy a higher quality of accessory food item at the local grocery store than what she normally would buy.
“If I was going to get things for spaghetti, I would have bought a cheap package of hamburger, a cheap package of spaghetti and a cheap congtainer of spaghetti sauce. With this, I can spend the same amount of money and get a better meal.
“You can’t beat the quality,” Schroeder added about the food her family receives in each Prairie Pak. “The quality of food is good and getting better. We have a lot of healthy choices.”
Glasgow said she doesn’t feel Prairie Land Food hurts local grocery stores because the program does not give everything a household needs to fix a meal.
“They must have things (from the store) to supplement what they get (in a Prairie Pak),” she said.
Prairie Land Food has no income requirements for participants, Glasgow said.
“It’s not about how much money you make,” she said. “We have people who are very wealthy and people who are very poor.
“It just about deciding if you’d like to participate in supporting the program, because that is our only (financial) support,” she said. “We get no funding from anywhere else.”
Anyone interest in more information about the program can call Glasgow or visit the program’s Web site at www.prairielandfood.com.
