Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Utsler)

When people are passing 10th and Vermont Street, they can always see a black guy who is standing in front of the Lawrence Community Shelter, chasing cars, talking to himself, or sometimes even yelling at people passing by.
His name is Florid White, a Lawrence resident who has been living in the Lawrence Community Shelter for two and half months. He doesn’t have a job, and his wife left him because of this.

“This world is ruled by those people who have higher IQs,” White said. “Nobody cares about us.”
Florid White is not the only one who is suffering such a life. People who go to L.I.N.K every night to have dinner, people who go to Jubilee café every Tuesday and Friday morning to have breakfast, and people who stay in the shelter have similar experiences. White complains, but some homeless people don’t even know how to complain because a lot people who go to the preiously mentioned facilities for help have disabilities or mental illnesses.
According to the Director of Lawrence Community Shelter, Loring Henderson, Lawrence has a large population of homeless, and it might have increased since more people are coming to the shelter and other charity organizations for help. But it has always been hard for them to get enough funds, and the most important reason for that is most people are not fully aware of the situation of homeless people and the society doesn’t really understand them them.
Lawrence has a population of 80,000. Last year the Lawrence Community Shelter did the census for the first time, and the result is Lawrence has a homeless population of 371, which means that homeless people occupies at least 4.6 percent of the whole population. Besides that, Henderson said that the number was always incomplete.
Further more, both Henderson and Greg Moore, the director of L.I.N.K, which is the Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen, feel like the population of homeless people is increasing because more people are coming to the service.

“Usually we serve about 150 meals everyday. But recently we served about 185 on weekends,” Moore said.
According to Henderson, numbers don’t really matter. “What I’m concerned about is what we are doing,” Henderson said. “No matter if it’s increasing or not.”
According to a U.S. Conference of Mayors, among the total homeless population, about 20 percent of homeless have jobs, 22 percent are mentally disabled, 11 percent are veterans, and 34 percent are drug or alcohol dependent.
And in the Lawrence Community Shelter, part of their mission is to help people find jobs, quit drugs and alcohol and take care of people who have disabilities and mantle illness.
“The city commission gives about 2 percent from the dollar tax to some sort of art program every year,” Henderson said. “Art is nice. And I talked to them about giving 2 percent to the shelter, and they said that people don’t want to because it’s a waste of money.”
Henderson said that some people think that they made it on their own, and they want other people to make it themselves. But people need to realize that they can’t do things on their own. They are doing everything in a functional society, and the society doesn't work if there are thousands of homeless people on the streets.
“Right now the social contract between the society and homeless people are broken,” Henderson said. “We used to have some hospitals for those people who have mantle illness, but now instead of hospitals, people are sent to jails.”
Henderson said now that the weather is getting cold, and more people are coming to the shelter for help. They are rejecting about 15 people everyday. Besides, “All of the men and women are sleeping in the same room. We need money to build a new shelter, a better shelter,” Henderson said.
The other two charity organizations L.I.N.K and Jubilee café get all their funding from donations. The L.I.N.K gets about $30,000 a year, and it needs $1,000 a week to provide four dinners a week. According to Moore, right now they desperately need new dishwashers because the old ones are broken. They don’t have money to get it, and they have to wash dishes by hand. Jubilee café needs about $300 to provide two breakfasts. But several times it faced the danger of shutting down because they couldn’t get enough donations on time.
Just to rely on those certain donators is not enough, Henderson said. People don’t really have enough correct attention toward the homeless.
“Before I take this job, I never knew there are so many people in town are so poor that they don’t even have money to do groceries,” director Moore said. “And I grew up in Lawrence.”
Hillary Bowker, a senior from Kansas City, is the coordinator of Jubilee café. “Most people are really insensitive about what’s going on with the homeless,” Bowker said.
It’s not hard to help homeless people. In Jubilee café, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, most of the people who work there are volunteers. Sometimes they get enough people to help, but for the most of the time, they get only about 15 or 16 people and they need about 30 people to serve.
“If people can just try to talk to those homeless people, try to know them, and show some respect and understanding, that would be really nice,” Bowker said.
“People really need to be generous and understanding,” Henderson said. “They are human beings and we are human beings. We supposed to help each other.”

In May Joe Wimmer, Ft. Scott, Kan., senior, will be taking the plunge into the next phase of his life. Born and raised in small town Kansas his first experience with big city life was his move to Lawrence. Like many of his peers, Wimmer decisions in May begin his career paths for life. However, Ft. Scott will not be the home of his future.
“The reason people leave is to go to college. None of my friends are there anymore, and the opportunities aren’t there either,” Wimmer said.

Wimmer’s decision to move to a larger city is not uncommon. After dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on resumes many graduates venture to larger cities. However for graduates raised in rural communities, finding comparable work in small communities can be challenging.
For Wimmer that decision means staying Lawrence a town of no more than 83,000 residents, but to him over 10 times as many people as the town that raised him.
The problem becomes worse for students who specialize in certain areas.
Jill Hummels, public relations director for the School of Engineering, has seen graduates off to the far reaches of the world. However, small town employment ranks low on the list of possibilities.
Because of the engineering crunch, students graduating in the field are in high demand; offering graduates the opportunity to pick and choose which city to work in.
“Small town markets focus on civil engineering. Every town needs maintenance to its road and infrastructure. But the number of civil engineers is based on population, and small towns just don’t need that many,” Hummels said.
For engineers, Kansas City, Kan., is the Mecca for employment. A great deal of the graduates for the University’s program ends up working in the city.
According to the United States Census Bureau only five percent of Ft. Scott’s population has a bachelor degree. That comes out to be 459 of the 8, 362 residents. Of Kansas City’s 145,000 residents over 10,000 have earned a bachelors degree.
“We see a lot of Kansas City companies recruiting graduates, probably more than any other area,” Hummels said.
The big city life also is also more prone to higher paychecks. Ft. Scott’s commercial viability rests within the manufacturing and service based Industries. The top employers in town include distribution plants and restoration companies. Only 10 percent of available jobs within the town are managerial positions.
In Ft. Scott the average yearly income comes to $21, 500, compared to Kansas City at $35,700, or Chicago at $43,250.

For Wimmer getting out of Ft. Scott means more than a larger salary. He has grown up with peers, whose families have never left Ft. Scott boasting several generations from the same town.
“Some families have always been there. Their parents didn’t go to college and their lives turned out okay. So they see no reason to go either,” Wimmer said.
Wimmer’s parents have college degrees, so his choices were limited to college after high school. But the manufacturing and service-based jobs in Ft. Scott will prevent him from ever moving back.
Wimmer’s roommate Will Olson shares the same view.
After attending Pittsburg State University Will landed a job in sales working for a water purification company.
“I like the money and being out of Ft. Scott. I have no reason to go back,” Olson said.
None of Wimmer and Olson’s childhood friends still live in Ft. Scott. Many went to college in Pittsburg Kansas or else where, and the few who have graduated have yet to come back.
Bryan McDow works for KU Career Services. In his experience the choices that students make are very dependant on personal choice. Although some students look for jobs within their hometowns, many explore the idea of leaving for good.
“We always see the big cities, New York, LA, Chicago, but finding jobs and other factors come into play,” McDow said.
According to the Kansas Alumni Association, most alumni currently live in the Kansas City area. However, pockets of California, such as San Diego, and San Francisco, along with areas in Texas also play home to a large Jayhawk alumni network.
“For the most part the desirable places to live vary quite a bit, but the bigger cities are always going to be appealing,” McDow said.
Kimberley Goodwin, Littleton, Colo., sophomore, has always planned to move back to Colorado. Her decision to go out of state has made her realize the benefits of the city even more.
“It has all I’m looking for in a place to live. I had a great time growing up there and I’m excited to go back and have a career,” Goodwin said.
Although the thought of going to the bigger cities like Los Angeles or New York sounds appealing, Goodwin could never see herself living outside of Colorado again.
“It’s become who I am, and it’s where I feel the most at home. There are so many opportunities in Denver for me to succeed, “Goodwin said.
For Wimmer and Olson, the choice to leave Ft. Scott is easy.
“College is the ticket out, and so I’m out,” Wimmer said.

Nicole Jahnke buys food for a living. But instead of loaves of bread, she buys truckloads. Instead of bags of apples, she buys cases.

As director of food and nutrition services for Topeka, Kan., public schools, it’s Jahnke’s responsibility to make sure 15,000 breakfasts and lunches are served to students each school day. Purchasing the amount of food needed to feed USD 501 requires careful planning and budgeting to satisfy student tastes as well as federal nutritional guidelines.

Buying nutrient-rich foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains is essential to meeting federal expectations. Unfortunately, not all school budgets are equipped to handle the menu change.

“Everything just costs more,” Jahnke said.

Jahnke said she was spending 10 percent more on fresh produce this year despite serving close to same amount as last year. Paula Murrish, USD 497 food services director in Lawrence, said she was in a similar predicament. Her department has spent 5 percent more on fruits and vegetables and increased the percentage of the food budget spent on produce to 30 percent. Both said they expected expenses to continue rising as more and more produce and whole grain items are added to menus.

The added expenses are threatening to force Jahnke, Murrish and other Kansas administrators to plan for a bottom line in the red. Unless funding is increased to meet changing costs, the only solution may be to turn to government subsidization. Jahnke and Murrish said that without budget increases their districts would almost certainly be subsidized within five years.

The problem facing school administrators is the lack of additional funding to accompany revamped menus. To stay self-sufficient directors must find further resources to compensate for mounting produce and grain prices and the cost of production.

Jahnke said the unpredictability of prices because of weather and crop quality increased the degree of difficulty of staying within a rigid budget. The balancing act is even more tenuous considering that prices for those items are anything but stable.

“I think poor crops have been a big reason for price changes,” Jahnke said. “We’ve seen fluctuations in lettuce prices because of rain. We see orange prices skyrocket because of freezes in Florida. Apple prices are outrageous right now.”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Pricing Index statistics demonstrate just how unpredictable produce prices can be. In 2007, the range in percent change of navel orange prices was 45 percentage points. In January the index indicated prices were only 9.2 percent higher than those in the base years between 1982-1984. In September that price was almost 55 percentage points more.

Price discrepancies between whole grain and enriched grain products also contribute to budget frustrations. Vicki Hoffman, director of nutrition services for USD 259 in Wichita, Kan., said she finds the gap in price difficult to justify when buying in the quantities necessary to feed tens of thousands of students.

Hoffman said that wheat-based entrees, for example whole-grain pretzels, can cost 10 to12 cents more than their enriched counterparts. She said she thinks the school district’s desire to increase the use of whole grains in its menus has led to even more price increases.

“Manufacturers, it seems to me, take advantage of that,” she said. “Anything that has whole grains in it, the price just went up. Whether it’s a volume thing or whether it’s just because they can I’m not real sure.”

While the cost of food is especially taxing, the strain on school districts doesn’t stop at rising food prices. Nearly every aspect of transporting, preparing and serving fresh produce and whole grains is more expensive than for the preprocessed counterparts.

For Midwest school districts price increases are also a result of skyrocketing fuel costs. Districts help assume the burden that the transportation of thousands of pounds of food places on shipping companies.

The result for schools away from coastal shipping centers is even higher prices. Murrish said she had experienced an 11-12 percent markup on certain items because of the long transportation distances necessary.

The added costs don’t end once the food arrives. Murrish said that although she would like to provide even more healthy options, she is limited not only by price but the additional labor needed to prepare thousands of servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

Murrish is far from being able to hire more staff. In fact, she was forced to take the opposite approach to meet her $5 million budget. USD 497 downsized its labor force from 151 to 108 employees, restricting the amount of preparation Murrish’s staff can undertake. Without the additional help, Murrish said the process needed to prepare fresh produce and healthy entrees was nearly impossible on an overstretched budget.

“It’s expensive to do stir-fry and cook your vegetables and do all the labor processing of fruits and vegetables,” Murrish said. “We would much rather clean our broccoli or make our own coleslaw, but it’s just prohibitive when it comes to the amount of time it takes.”

Hoffman said the problem was even more pronounced in large districts. Hoffman and her staff serve between 34,000 and 40,000 meals per day. Even though USD 259 uses huge facilities and automated machinery, the job remains overwhelming.

“Because of the number of meals we serve even the production costs more," she said. "When we have orange wedges on the elementary menu it takes three days for the kitchen to cut orange wedges.”

Despite the cost of providing students with healthy alternatives to traditional cafeteria fare, budget crunches in school districts are forcing them to consider a future reliant on subsidized funds. The rise in prices of food and fuel seem unlikely to reverse.

For Jahnke and Murrish, the only solution is more money. Jahnke said that if her budget rose by a minimum of 3 percent every year she might have a chance at avoiding subsidization.

Murrish was less optimistic. She said she could last the rest of this year but would need significant funding increases to continue growing the program the district is committed to developing in Lawrence schools.

Luckily for Murrish, USD 497 is devoted to changing the way its students eat. Although she faces the possibility of subsidization, Murrish said the program will continue expanding even if that means losing money

“I do not see us backing down from wellness initiates,” Murrish said. “I do not see us stopping where we’ve been just so we could sell more. If anything it’s going to go the other way.”