<em>This article originally appeared in the Tuesday, May 29, 2007 edition of The Kansas City Star</em></p><p>Nada.</p><p>The young mom came to apply for food and child-care assistance. She spoke no English.</p><p>Line by line, bilingual caseworker Anna Lambertson reviewed the Spanish version of the woman’s 10-page application.</p><p>Anyone disabled in the household?</p><p>The woman shook her head.</p><p>What about resources? Cash? A checking account? Savings?</p><p>Livestock?</p><p>The young mom shook her head and smiled apologetically.</p><p>"Nada," she said.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>What she did have was a $1,000-a-month job as a cook and a 2-year-old son, whom she brought with her to the Kansas Social and Rehabiliation Services office in Kansas City, Kan.</p><p>After the mother left, Lambertson calculated that rent and child care took up nearly all the woman’s salary.</p><p>Nothing was left for food.</p><p>Nada.</p><p>As Congress prepares to wrangle with reauthorizing the Farm Bill, which funds the food-stamp program, anti-hunger advocates are on high alert. Eager to generate public discussion during national Hunger Awareness Week, June 2-10, they worry about the more than 25 million Americans who use food stamps.</p><p>They also worry about those who do not.</p><p>About 80 percent of eligible Missourians get food stamps, one of the highest participation rates in the country. In Kansas, only slightly more than half the residents who are eligible use food stamps.</p><p>What keeps people away? Pride. Embarrassment. Misinformation. When they are hungry, people turn to last resorts -- shelters, pantries, senior centers -- all of which are served by Harvesters, the Kansas City area’s community food bank network.</p><p>Every week, Harvesters serves free food to 60,000 hungry people in the area. That is greater than the populations of Mission Hills, Leawood and Prairie Village combined.</p><p>"If we filled up Arrowhead Stadium with 60,000 (hungry) people, people would go, ‘Wow, we’ve got a problem here,’ " said Karen Haren, Harvesters’ director.</p><p>Rosa Fletcher makes about $400 a month at the St. James Place food pantry on Troost Avenue, where she processes the applications of people who come in for free groceries. Fletcher is 45, single and takes care of two cousins -- both 11-year-old boys. She gets $389 in food stamps each month, which breaks down to about $32 per person per week.</p><p>"We have soup kitchens around," Fletcher said. "But you want your own food in your own house."</p><p>Fletcher worked as a certified nurse assistant before she nearly lost her left eye three years ago in a car crash. She can’t drive now, so she finds a ride to work every day.</p><p>Fletcher prefers the freedom of shopping for her own groceries, but food stamps buy little freedom. At Happy Foods on 31st Street, her purchases often spring from frustrating choices.</p><p>Fletcher’s doctor has told her to lose weight to lower her blood pressure and cholesterol. She also is diabetic. Medicine to treat those conditions costs about $365 a month, which eats up nearly all her salary.</p><p>Fletcher told her doctor she couldn’t afford to lose weight. In the produce section at Happy Foods, Fletcher pointed to a $1.99 head of cauliflower.</p><p>"How can I go on a diet?" she asked. "Tomatoes are $1.49 a pound."</p><p>Her cousins love grapes, but a prepackaged tray costs $3.17. Fletcher buys canned fruit cocktail instead.</p><p>Though she will pass on the 5-pound bags of hot dogs for $7.99 -- "That’s ridiculous," she said -- Fletcher will buy lots of chicken necks because they are meaty and cheap. She can get four or five meals out of a $3 package.