WILSON — Before gearing up for the summer food program, Feeding the Children of Central Kansas, director Lynn Kasper spoke at the Child Nutrition Conference.

The conference, which was held April 14-16 in Dallas, was an opportunity for Kasper to share, but also gain ideas.

“Last July, the area specialist came out to visit our food site in Wilson. She also visited the site we distribute to at Lucas,” Kasper said. “When she came back, she said to us, ‘You have got such a unique program, you can pull it off for just the summer, you don’t worry about the school year.’” The specialist then strongly hinted Kasper should present at the national conference.

“She said ‘we try to recommend people who have something new and different to share. Your program is different than the average food summer program,’” Kasper said.

While she originally intended to present with another member of FCCK, life intervened and Kasper was the solo presenter. She worked with an intern from Newman University to assemble a PowerPoint presentation.

“I did a 45-minute presentation with pictures we’ve kept over 19 years and told how our program started with the Methodist Church,” Kasper said.

In the beginning, she said feeding 30 children daily was a win for the group. These days, Kasper said the program in Wilson provides between 300-400 meals Monday-Thursday for Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo USD 327, Central Plains USD 112 and Sylvan-Lucas USD 299.

Kasper said each school district in the state is required to offer a summer food program. FCCK covers the districts so the buildings can be cleaned and undergo improvements.

Kasper said about 50 people attended her session.

“The most exciting part of my session was I had a kitchen manager from Alaska ask if I had any time while I was in Dallas to talk to her,” Kasper said. “She had a lot more questions. We were able to sit down. She’s on a reservation — indigenous — her concern is her children have to come so far that they spend the night Monday-Friday at school and go home to their parents on the weekend. She needs to send food home with them on the weekends.”

The program works the same way in the summer, with students attending summer camp and going home for the weekends.

“In 2025, they may go to camp every other week. When they leave Friday, she needs to send food home for the next week,” Kasper said. “We tossed back and forth some ideas. It was very interesting for me to hear some of what her concerns and problems were — they are nothing like my concerns and problems here.”

Kasper and her staff provide meals daily, Monday-Thursday. On Thursday, meals for the weekend are sent home with youth.

The knowledge and connections gained at the conference will help as Kasper and the program move forward.

“They have products or technology I’m interested in,” she said.

The expo portion of the convention was eye-opening.

“Let’s take cereal,” Kasper said. “For us to use it, it has to be high enough in fiber but low in sugar.

“These companies (say) ‘if you buy from us, we guarantee our cereal has enough fiber and are low enough in sugar.’ Some of the cereals are namebrand. Some are going to be a company specifically that developed a cereal. They really want your business and to help the farmer out. The wheat, the whole wheat, the oats, the corn.”

The summer food program runs through the last week of July.

Call (785) 658-2276 for more information.