Millions of pounds of food are distributed each year to food insecure families in the area through Second Harvest Community Food Bank in St. Joseph.

Second Harvest relies on several events and donations throughout the year to be able to help those families through programs such as Backpack Buddies and No Hunger Summer.

Michelle Fagerstone is the Chief Development Officer for Second Harvest. Fagerstone said to help 100% of the food insecure all the time in their 19-county service area they would need 12 million pounds of food. Last year, Second Harvest distributed 5.5 million pounds of food.

Fagerstone said one of the programs they offer, No Hunger Summer, works with churches and area organizations to set up feeding sites throughout communities in the area where anyone up to 18-years-old can go to receive a free lunch Monday through Friday.

“When school is let out, then a lot of families who are food insecure, that’s an added burden on them as to how they’re going to feed the kids while they’re out of school,” Fagerstone said. “So we give them the option to come and visit one of the sites and hopefully they get a nutritious meal and they get a little bit of relief off of their grocery bill.”

The No Hunger Summer program runs from the week after summer school gets out until about a week before school starts up again.

During the school year, the Backpack Buddies program helps students that receive free or reduced-price lunches at school.

“The kids on Friday as they’re getting ready to leave for the weekend, receive a package of food that has a breakfast, two entrees, some snacks, juice and shelf-stable milk in it and so it’s just enough food to tide them over for the weekend,” Fagerstone said. “It’s mainly meant to be used as a supplement to food that hopefully they’re getting at home also.”

Fagerstone said they have provided as many as 3,490 backpacks per weekend through the Backpack Buddies program in 18 of the 19 counties they serve.

Some of the ways Second Harvest is supported through the community include events such as the Canned Film Festival. The event each year is put on by Regal Hollywood 10 Theaters and Eagle Radio along with Midwest Data and Mosaic Life Care.

“The idea is that anybody, whether they’re truly a kid or a kid at heart, can enjoy a movie on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for just the price of a can of food,” Fagerstone said.

According to Fagerstone, the event last year collected 11,400 pounds of food and they estimate that this year, with the event being extended two weeks, they will collect over 15,000 pounds. The Canned Film Festival runs through August 8th and this week, movies being shown include the Lego Batman movie and Trolls. Doors open at 9 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. You can find more information at ourcommunityfoodbank.org.

Another food drive and fundraiser comes during Hunger Action Month in September.

“We do what is called, ‘The Corporate Food Fight,’ and we invite corporations and businesses here in the St. Joseph area to compete in food and fund drives,” Fagerstone said. “They compete all month long… we bunch them up according to size and all month long they bring us funds and they bring us food. At the end of the month, we tally everything up and we give out four ‘Golden Can Awards’ to the top four performing businesses and they really have a blast with that. It brings us in about 65,000 pounds of food every year.”

Fagerstone said the largest fundraiser of the year is the Mayor’s Thanksgiving Dinner and in a few weeks they will be announcing some details about that event.

For more information about Second Harvest Community Food Bank, their programs, how to set up a food drive and more, click here.

The purpose of an event in Osborn this weekend is to help knock out childhood cancer.

Osborn City Clerk Jody Barlow said gates open for the Fight for the Fearless event at 5 p.m. and fights start at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Osborn City Park.

“It’s a free will donation at the gate… At the event you’ll get to see live, professional boxers spar as well as some amateur fighters,” Barlow said. “Some of the professional fighters will be paired with local celebrities to get it on and help knock out childhood cancer.”

Proceeds from the event go to the Rose Lowenstein Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to raise awareness of childhood cancer and to assist deserving area families affected by childhood cancer. A portion of the proceeds will also go to the Taylor Finley Memorial scholarship and an Osborn family who has a child battling cancer.

For more information on the Fight for the Fearless event, go to roselowensteinfoundation.org.

The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce was recently recognized as one of the top 10 chambers for membership retention.

Kristi Bailey with the St. Joseph Chamber said they were notified by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives that they were recognized for having placed in the top 10 for membership retention in their division for Fiscal Year 2017.

“That’s really a point of pride for us. What membership retention is, is basically how many… of our members stay members year after year,” Bailey said. “Sometimes you might think it’s easy to get someone to join up for a chamber membership, but it’s not always easy to keep members. So we were very excited to place in the top 10 for our size chamber because it means that what we’ve been doing has been working.”

Chamber President and CEO R. Patt Lilly said businesses join the chamber for different reasons.

“(They join) to increase foot traffic in their doors, to support economic development, to have a larger voice in legislative advocacy efforts, but why they stay is important,” Lilly said. “We’ve seen high retention rates, because members recognize that not only do they receive benefits like educational and networking opportunities, but being a part of the Chamber is a way to support their community.”

Other chambers in the division to receive the top 10 recognition include the Greater Green Bay, Wisc., Chamber and the Toledo, Ohio, Regional Chamber of Commerce, among others.

For more information about the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce go to saintjoseph.com.

A 19-year-old was injured in a shooting Monday in St. Joseph.

According to the St. Joseph Police Department, several calls came in reporting a shooting around 6:40 p.m. in the area of 800 South 14th. Officers arrived to find the 19-year-old man with a gunshot wound. He was immediately transported to the hospital. According to police, he is in critical condition.

Police have no other information at this time and no arrests have been made.

The incident is still under investigation and anyone with information is asked to call the Detective Unit at (816) 271-5336.

Explosions, Tasers and meeting a K9 have all been a part of the Junior Police Academy experience this week.

The academy, with the St. Joseph Police Department, is geared toward area students ages 12 to 14 who have an interest in a career in law enforcement.

“I came here because I want to do a line of work like my father. My father is a St. Joe police officer,” said 12-year-old Autumn, who is attending the Junior Police Academy. “We’ve been learning how to tase people, how to book evidence and we learned about Thazer.”

Thazer (pronounced like Taser) is a Dutch Shepherd and the St. Joseph Police Department K9. Officer Dillon Powell, the department’s K9 handler, spoke to the over 20 students Thursday morning and introduced Thazer. Other activities during the week included going to the gun range, hearing from the Bicycle Unit, riding in a squad car and more.

“SRT, on Wednesday, surprised us with an explosion,” said Officer Devin Kallauner. “They had two breach explosions and then they had a very large explosion that the kids absolutely loved. The bad part is, it was in the middle of the week so we have to follow the big day with some boring days, but they got a kick out of it.”

Kallauner said the Junior Police Academy offers an opportunity for students to learn more about law enforcement and what officers do on a daily basis.

“This camp is geared towards kids that are interested in law enforcement.. there are kids that also want to be in the FBI and this is a start,” Kallauner said. “This is something they could put on a resume for a law enforcement career… that they went through this and they see how the day-to-day operations of a police department work.”

Kallauner said this is the first year of the academy and they plan to continue it. The department is also considering another program for 15 to 21-year-olds.

“That’s something where you can graduate from the Junior Academy and you can move up to, I guess we’re going to call it an explorer program… we are just talking about it and, right now, our thoughts are meeting once a month instead of having it one big long week,” Kallauner said. “We’ll just span it out throughout the year to keep them interested in law enforcement, not necessarily tell them they have to come here, it’s a good recruiting tool for us, but it’s going to help other departments and other agencies throughout the state, throughout the U.S. and maybe other countries, if they decide they want to be a police officer somewhere else, but this is a good start for all the kids.”

The Junior Police Academy will wrap up with a graduation Friday. Next week, the Cops Care Youth Camp will be taking place for students ages nine to 12.

St. Joseph police are investigating after a home invasion and attempted robbery resulted in a shooting Saturday morning.

According to Sgt. Steve McClintick with the St. Joseph Police Department, around 5 a.m. Saturday, a person was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg. It was reported that an attempted robbery took place at a house in the 2800 block of South 23rd.

Police talked with residents and others who were present during the incident. They told police two suspects wearing hoodies and bandannas over their faces entered the house and one displayed a handgun. During an altercation between the suspects and people in house, the suspect with the gun fired several times before fleeing. One person was shot in the leg and transported to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Nothing was taken during the attempted robbery. The incident is still under investigation.

An annual weekend full of activities to honor Amelia Earhart takes place in Atchison July 20th and 21st.

The Amelia Earhart Festival kicks off Friday with LakeFest.

“We like to say (it’s) the cheapest, best concert in the whole area,” said Jacque Pregont, President of the Atchison Chamber of Commerce. “This year, headlining is Brett Young who’s got a hit climbing up the charts right now… and then Maddie and Tae and A Thousand Horses, all of them on Friday night, July 20th, at Warnock Lake, it’s an awesome venue, it’s going to be an awesome concert, so we’d love for everybody to get their tickets.

Tickets for LakeFest are available at the Stetson Outlet in St. Joseph and other places around the area or click here to purchase tickets online.

On Saturday night, there will be live music, food vendors, an aerobatic performance and fireworks.

“If you have not seen those fireworks, you’re really missing out,” Pregont said. “We call it a Concert in the Sky because it’s fireworks set to music. It’s absolutely beautiful, it’s usually about 25 minutes of music and fireworks… promise you, it’s one of the best you’ve ever seen.”

For more information and a full schedule of events for the Amelia Earhart Festival in Atchison July 20-21, go to visitatchison.com.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph has earned TripAdvisor’s 2018 Certificate of Excellence.

St. Joseph Museums Public Relations Officer Kathy Reno said TripAdvisor® awards a Certificate of Excellence to businesses that have earned great traveler reviews on TripAdvisor’s website over the past year.

“They look at everybody’s reviews, who rises to the top in terms of how the customers feel about their experience, and then they alert you, each year, how you rank,” Reno said. “We keep ‘Please review us on TripAdvisor’ cards at our exit so people can weigh in and say, ‘I really liked this exhibit,’ or ‘This was confusing to me,’ and their reviews appear on TripAdvisor. I love reading what they say because their input is important to us. I do read it, I make sure everybody on staff knows about it, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent.”

To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months.

Reno said the Glore Psychiatric Museum has received the Certificate of Excellence in previous years, but this year they moved up to rank number two on TripAdvisor’s website on the list of things to do in Saint Joseph.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum, located at 3406 Frederick Avenue, takes guests through exhibits that illustrate the history and progress of mental health treatments.