Jalyn King was thinking about her daughters and their future when she took measure of all she had learned. Now she’ll tell her 6-year-old, “It’s going to take a while, but we WILL get a house.”

Sometimes, in the scattered experience that was her home life, Mariah would wake to her school day knowing she needed to be dressed and out by 5 a.m. to catch a city bus — sometimes more than one — to get to her regular school bus stop on time. It was a lot to ask of a girl still in elementary school.

“I like LINC,” says 7-year-old Eleanor. “They do nice things for us. We give them good days and they give us good days.” See how the fun and learning took off from Day One.

City leaders and Kansas City’s Public Improvements Advisory Committee are getting the word. Overgrown shrubs and vines are imperiling the walk to school, sidewalks need work and traffic has grown dangerous — these are some of the concerns that have come out of LINC community site councils.

When people in Kansas City hear the name LINC, they may think of before and after school care. But as families get ready for the new school year, LINC wants people to know its work does not begin or end with the school bell.

The young people loading food into the trunks of Kansas City families’ cars had traveled a long way. Their spiritual journey from Flint, Mich, brought them to the expansive weekly Wednesday morning food distribution that Morning Star.