Steven Davis, President of Harvesters International, runs a food bank that does major work in Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas. Harvesters International is located in Lawrence and provides food and related household items to more than 900 nonprofit agencies. The organization works with food pantries, community kitchens, homeless shelters, and children’s homes in a 27 county service area. Harvesters International also has a mission to address hunger education, advocacy and public policy. A coalition of business, faith community and social services leaders in the Kansas City area came together in 1979 to work on food waste and hunger. A non profit was formed that has grown steadily and now serves 340,000 people and distributed 61 million pounds of food last year. Steven indicated that twelve per cent of the population are food insecure and only about half the need is being met. He noted that Harvesters International works closely with organizations serving the food insecure in Douglas County.
