Blue KC joins 700 volunteers to help end food insecurity in honor of September 11
“This day sparks a lot of things for a lot of people,” said Jocelyn Burgette, Supervisor of Customer Experience Operations at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC).
To mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Burgette was one of 12 Blue KC employees who joined more than 700 volunteers from Kansas City in a massive nationwide movement to “Honor Through Action.”
As part of the largest annual day of service in U.S. history, organized and led by the nonprofit 9/11 Day, the volunteers packed nearly 200,000 healthy, non-perishable meals for local families in need throughout Missouri and Kansas.
According to Feeding America statistics from 2023, 1 in 7 people and 1 in 5 kids, including 128,00 children, are at risk of hunger in the Kansas City region. Doing her part to help improve food insecurity was a reason why Burgette wanted to volunteer.
“Knowing that we were preparing meals for those who really need it because right now, everybody is hurting, everybody needs a little bit of help,” she said.
First 9/11 Day meal pack event in KC
In 2016, 9/11 Day held its inaugural large scale meal pack event in New York City. The event expanded to 18 cities in 2023, and this was the first year 9/11 Day brought the meal pack to Kansas City, joining 50 large-scale 9/11 Day service projects nationwide. This 25th anniversary effort mobilized 50,000 volunteers from across the country who packed more than 17 million meals.
The event at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center featured a 9/11 Day ceremony that included a moment of silence to recognize first responders, including the Kansas City Fire and Police Departments. Select cast members from the KC Repertory Theatre’s COME FROM AWAY – a Tony Award-winning, 9/11 inspired musical – sang “America the Beautiful” acapella.
“9/11 is a day that none of us will forget ever,” said Macaela Stephenson, Director of Community Relations and Investment at Blue KC. “I think that as Americans and people who are proud of this country and who love each other, the loss that we felt on that day still really resonates. So, we want to take care of others in our community, and I think it’s a great way to honor those people who lost their lives on that day.”
Kanbe’s Markets chosen as beneficiary
Stephenson and her fellow volunteers packed ingredients that included lentils and rice into a meal in an assembly-line fashion. It was all to help support the event’s main beneficiary and Blue KC’s longtime partner, Kanbe’s Markets.
“The organizers of this whole day reached out because of our connection to food and access in the Kansas City region to see if we could get this wonderful food being packed out into the area,” said Max Kaniger, Founder and CEO of Kanbe’s Markets. “Typically, the nonprofits who work with us are known to come to get fresh produce from us, so to be able to add lentils, rice and other shelf stable goods to give families a little more breathing room and leeway as we’re coming to the end of summer is really an exciting thing to have the opportunity to do.”
“We have about 60 organizations that we partner with around the metro, from South KC, North KC, the Kansas side and the Missouri side,” said Sydney Schier, Redirection Program Coordinator at Kanbe’s Markets. “A lot of these meals will end up at organizations like Cross-Lines Community Outreach and Catholic Charities.
Each year, 400,000 Kansas City area residents face food insecurity, and Burgette was proud to have the opportunity to make a difference in the place she calls home.
“That’s one thing I love about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is that we’re always out in the community helping wherever we can see a need and where we can make a lasting impact”, she said.
