During the pandemic, public schools provided free meals to every student, regardless of their family's ability to pay. But when that federal program ended in 2022, school meal debt in Kansas skyrocketed beyond pre-pandemic levels. In the Valley Center school district, one sixth grader is organizing an effort to pay off other student's lunch tabs with a goal to end meal debt there entirely.
Plus more on these stories:
- Kansas and more than thirty other states won an antitrust lawsuit against the ticket-selling giant Ticketmaster this week.
- A raid on a Kansas newspaper by law enforcement came up in hearings for Kansans nominated to be federal judges.
- The Wichita school district is beginning negotiations with its teacher's union this week to hammer out next year's teacher contract.
- American prairies are a threatened ecosystem, but they’re not completely lost. In fact, there are major efforts underway to preserve and restore prairies across the country.
- Kansas Court of Appeals judges will decide whether a lack of lane markings can make the Kansas Department of Transportation and city of Wamego liable for a crash.
- An animal shelter in Winfield is reaching out to the public for help treating dogs with parvovirus.
- A highway project will affect traffic at a major south Wichita interchange next week.
Producers: Haley Crowson and Lu Anne Stephens
Editors: Haley Crowson and Suzanne Perez
Contributors: Zach Boblitt, Daniel Caudill, Suzanne Perez, Jess Savage and Rachel Schnelle
Theme music: Torin Andersen
Digital editor: Haley Crowson
