Meals on Wheels vans sit in a parking lot one evening.
Meals on Wheels serves homebound residents who are at least 60 years old or disabled. KC Shepherd's Center says funding cuts have reduced the number of clients it can serve through the program from approximately 1,200 to 500. (Mike Sherry/The Beacon)

South Kansas City Alliance: Monthly Meeting (Aug. 10, 2026)

By Connye Griffin, Kansas City Documenter

These notes were produced through Kansas City Documenters, which trains and pays community members to take fact-checked notes at public meetings, strengthening transparency and accountability in local government.

Summary

  • President John Sharp welcomed five guest speakers at the South Kansas City Alliance (SKCA) meeting. Members gathered to learn about KC Shepherd’s Center, Grandview and Hickman Mills schools and efforts to curb crime in south Kansas City.
  • KC Shepherd’s Center Executive Director Janet Baker told members that cuts in government funding have reduced the organization’s $2 million budget by approximately $500,000. Shepherd’s Center primarily serves elderly residents in Jackson County. 
  • Superintendents Stephanie Amaya (Grandview) and Dennis Carpenter (Hickman Mills) reported the school districts’ plans for 2026-2027.
  • Maj. Kari Thompson, commander of the Kansas City Police Department’s South Patrol Division, said that individuals who can’t “emotionally regulate” are at the root of violence in the city. She cited “arguments” as the main reason for homicides so far this year. She asked organizations such as the Center for Conflict Resolution to offer resolution tools to schoolchildren starting in second grade.

Notes

Introduction

  • In addition to announcing the guests, speakers and topics, Sharp shared his insights into problems facing Kansas City and Missouri. He focused on legislation mandating vehicle-interlock devices for people convicted of driving while intoxicated. Sharp’s son, state Rep. Mark Sharp, sponsored HB 1804, modifying laws related to interlock devices. The elder Sharp also drew attention to Bentley’s Law, which will take effect Aug. 28. It will require a convicted person to provide child support if intoxication causes a fatality leaving a child orphaned.

KC Shepherd’s Center

  • Background
    • Baker said that KC Shepherd’s Center, founded in 1972, is the only nonprofit in south Kansas City serving older adults exclusively with several programs. It began with a coalition of faith leaders who had recognized that retirees and the elderly needed purpose because work no longer defined them. The coalition recruited them as volunteers. 
    • 82% of the center’s clients do not drive, and 73% of its clients are dependent on modest Supplemental Security income.
    • “Everything we do is about trying to help older adults age in place, to live in their homes and the place they call home as long as that’s physically possible,” Baker said.
    • A property tax for senior services, passed by Jackson County voters in 2024, generates about $7 million to $9 million a year to fund programs for seniors.
    • The center wants space to showcase client talent and offer programs because south Kansas City lacks a senior center. The center has a small headquarters at 9200 Ward Parkway but otherwise relies on borrowed space for programs.
  • Meals on Wheels
    • One of the center’s early programs was Meals on Wheels, now in its 54th year of continuous service.
    • Average annual incomes of Shepherd’s Center clients is less than $20,000, so nutritional support is important. Minimal resources also led seniors to share their delivered meals with pets. The center now receives donations to provide pet food so clients and their pets receive full meals.
      • Funding cuts started last year have reduced the center’s Meals on Wheels clients from 1,200 to about 500.
  • In-Home Health and Dental
    • The center also delivers healthcare for isolated and homebound seniors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it gave vaccinations to clients in their homes. Health visits, including for dental health, continue. Clients must eat properly to remain healthy, and poor dental health makes eating harder.
  • Challenges
    • The center has lost $500,000 funding, about 25% of its budget, from cuts to two programs: AmeriCorps Senior Companions and Meals on Wheels.
      • In February 2025, Baker received a letter from AmeriCorps advising the center that it appeared the organization had committed to a diversity, equity and inclusion agenda.
        • The letter required Shepherd’s Center to prove that to be untrue or surrender the program. Baker expressed her gratitude to the center’s board for its  “values-based” decision to cease the center’s participation in the AmeriCorps Seniors Senior Companion Program.
        • All the clients and companions the center served through the program were lower-income, older Black women. People of color constitute 50% of the center’s clientele.
        • The cuts meant about 100 people who were paid a small sum to be senior companions lost that bit of income and the people they served lost a visitor.

Grandview Schools

  • Amaya reminded SKCA she was about a month into her new job as superintendent after 35 years in public education. The district is busy at the start of a new school year while $90 million of bond projects proceed. This school year, a new program for autistic students opens and the early childhood education center is being remodeled.

Hickman Mills Schools

  • Carpenter recalled his last visit to SKCA when the district was forced to eliminate programs and cut staff. Nevertheless, student outcomes were on par with other years. In May, 328 students graduated and earned more than $5 million in scholarship awards. Carpenter said he expected the district’s full accreditation to be restored in January.
  • Carpenter presented the district’s strategic goals for the current academic year:
    • Students will read 500 words and write 100 words daily.
    • The district will be responsible and transparent in meeting facility needs and strengthening financial stability. One project associated with this goal is new stadium lighting installations at Ruskin High School for football. 
    • Carpenter also is determined to respond to the district’s constituents. To quantify “respect, responsiveness and service excellence,” the district will conduct an audit of interactions.
    • And the district plans to establish practices to ensure adequate staffing levels and recruitment pipelines while reducing overall vacancies and retaining highly qualified staff. Because districts use salaries and benefits to compete for teachers, this goal is particularly challenging, Carpenter said.
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Kansas City Police Department

  • Thompson of the KCPD’s South Patrol Division said it was possible to “change the world one person at a time.”
  • South Patrol focuses on those already affected by the justice system and on youths. To cultivate a climate in which law enforcement is not an enemy or source of fear, the patrol supports reentry after incarceration and helps young people fulfill their dreams and reduce criminality.
  • Thompson attributed crime rates to generational patterns and an inability to regulate emotions. “They can’t calm themselves, soothe themselves,” she said. “They go right out and pull that gun, and they will shoot you for the most minimal reasons. Guys, it breaks our hearts when we go on calls and we find out the reason. It’s not because someone was robbing me and I was afraid for my life. No, because he cut me off in traffic and gave me the middle finger and may have called me a racial slur or something. … So what we’re dealing with in Kansas City is a need for resolution, a need for tools … to talk with one another. Because guess who’s watching? Our kids.”
  • To prevent youths from “inheriting” criminality and to inspire them, KCPD conducts outreach events, including Snow Cone With a Cop. The Police Athletic League feeds 75 kids daily in another outreach program. 
  • KCPD goes to prisons, convenience stores, crime scenes and community centers to engage with the public. For example, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 29, KCPD will host a block party called “Take Back the Block” at the Depot, 9200 Old Santa Fe, an apartment complex where a double homicide occurred June 11. The event, coordinated by officer Mary McCall with the Community Interaction Patrol, will provide food, a bounce house and more to change the perception of the police and the place.
  • Some people question the use of manpower to be present for a party, but community interactions do not use law enforcers assigned elsewhere. And nonenforcement interactions can change minds and perhaps hearts, McCall said.  

Observations & Follow-Up Questions

  • Are nonenforcement interventions effective in reducing crime rates?
  • Widespread suffering during the Great Depression inspired Social Security legislation. But 42% of elderly Jackson County residents live without a pension or other retirement funds. Will Kansas City continue to take care of the poor with a tax levy and contributions in time and dollars?
  • What incentives or conditions could persuade teachers not to change districts so staffing is more stable within districts?
  • Is crisis intervention training effective in reducing crime?

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@thebeacon.media with “Correction Request” in the subject line. Learn more about Documenters on our website.

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Kansas City Documenters trains and pays community members to take fact-checked notes at public meetings, strengthening transparency and accountability in local government.