K-State home
K-State Today
Documentary highlights food insecurity in Garden City, premiere set for May 1

Boxes of various fruits, vegetables and other foods are pictured. Bags of potatoes, grapes and oranges pop with color.

Documentary highlights food insecurity in Garden City, premiere set for May 1

Volunteers help distribute food boxes at La Comunidad church in Garden City, as shown in the new documentary "Sharing the Harvest."

By Tom Hallaq

A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication

Monday, March 30, 2026

A new documentary from Kansas State University's award-winning Hungry Heartland Project and Engaged Stories Lab examines issues of food access in Garden City.

"Sharing the Harvest" highlights local organizations and community leaders in Garden City who are working to bridge the gap for families struggling with food insecurity. Featured entities include Emmaus House — a local food pantry, shelter and soup kitchen — La Comunidad church's mobile food pantry and the Kansas Food Bank.

The documentary is a collaborative effort between Tom Hallaq, associate professor in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication, and Valerie Padilla Carroll, professor and interim head of the Department of Social Transformation Studies. Three student interns, funded by the Chapman Center for Rural Studies, provided essential research and production support.

"This project represents the power of interdisciplinary storytelling," Hallaq said. "By combining media expertise with social analysis, our students have captured the resilience of the Garden City community while highlighting the critical need for expanded food access."

A table set up outside of a church holds boxes of food with volunteers standing around it. — The "Sharing the Harvest" documentary highlights local organizations and community leaders in Garden City who are working to bridge the gap for families struggling with food insecurity, including La Comunidad church's mobile food pantry, pictured here.

Community members are invited to a free premiere screening of "Sharing the Harvest" at 1 p.m. Friday, May 1, in Room 581 of Hale Library. The students and faculty members who created the documentary will conduct a Q&A session following the screening.

The Hungry Heartland project is an interdisciplinary, multimedia storytelling initiative at K-State that documents the realities, challenges and triumphs of food insecurity across Kansas. Led by faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences, the project provides students with real-world multimedia production experience while educating the public on the vital social issue of limited food access.

The Engaged Stories Lab trains students to research and report on how Kansans enact stories of resilience and resistance. Using archival data and original interviews, the lab inspires community change through student-driven scholarship and storytelling.