The Community of Plains had recently been in contention for one of 40 $25,000 grants offered through State Farms �??Access To Food�?� program. Facebook users were allowed to vote for the community of their choice, all across the nation. Over 1.2 million votes were cast nation wide. Of the 100 finalists, The Community Enhancement Foundation of Plains received enough vote to place in the top 40 and receive one of these grants. Plains hopes to raise enough funds to build a local grocery store. Plains was the third smallest community in the top 100.

Upon hearing the news the Committee was elated, thankful and was looking forward to the next grant application deadline of July for a Tax Credit Grant.

Here is their submission letter:
Plains, Kansas is in an acute food desert with our closest grocery store 14 miles away. When residents of a populated area have to drive so far to access a variety of healthy food at reasonable prices, it is detrimental to their overall health, and a big attributing factor to obesity. Our schools are dedicated to teaching health & fitness, but when the only convenient access to food is the local convenience store, a parent_s effort to provide nutritious meals is very difficult to nearly impossible. The majority of Plains residents are in the LMI (Low to Moderate) income bracket and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Kansas among children in poor families is more than double the rate for children in higher income families (45.1% to 20.6%).

We are in the process of raising funds to provide a grocery store and the money would contribute to this cause. The impact of a full service grocery would be stupendous. A committee has worked on this goal for 4 years, with your help it is one step closer reality.