Summer EBT card food program for children returning in 2024 and beyond

The summer EBT food program for qualifying families with children is returning for Missourians in 2024, and will be a permanent program going forward, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today. The benefit will provide an extra $120 per child over three summer months.

'We are family!' Lights On Afterschool celebrates with LINC's communities

For all the statistical and historical reasons that measure the value of quality after-school programs, the music at Meadowmere Elementary School’s celebration in Grandview captured the heart of it all: “We are family . . .!”

'How we would've liked to learn': KCYA helps LINC integrate the arts

Today, the classroom site was dancing space at Kansas City Young Audiences. But in the days ahead, the LINC staff aim to create scenes like this with the children in LINC’s Caring Communities after-school programs across the Kansas City area.

Want to celebrate your Caring Communities? Here's where to find events near you

The fun, food and celebrations will be happening at various Caring Communities sites from Oct. 19 to Nov. 2. Check it all out at kclinc.org/lightson.

Eating it up: LINC kids love hot after-school meals

The question in the moment was: Has LINC and its partnership with Total Man CDC solved a healthy dinner gap in several area school programs? The answer, shown on the faces of children and teenagers, was happily clear. See what’s on the menu in LINC’s efforts in good nutrition.

'A mighty day': LINC Caring Communities go back to school

From North Kansas City to Grandview, from Kansas City’s West Side to Buckner, Mo., LINC’s Caring Communities school programs pounced on the new school year. See the sights and sounds. We’ve got video.

Garden therapy: LINC learns community gardening for the health of children, families

At the moment, the freshly churned garden bed was surrounded by adults — LINC Caring Communities coordinators and their staff — kneading the soil with seeds and seedlings. But it was easy to imagine where this hot August training day at Kansas City Community Gardens was leading: Kids. Lots of them.

Farm fresh: How free produce from Missouri growers is getting to KC area families

“It helps my kids eat healthy. It helps the moms who struggle throughout the summer to feed their kids when they’re not in school.” See how the Missouri Department of Social Services, LINC and local farmers are bringing home the harvest of a new federal program.

Tax-free weekend for back-to-school purchases coming Aug. 4-6

There will be no sales tax at all from 12:01 a.m. Friday Aug. 4 until midnight Sunday Aug. 6 on any sales of the exempt items like school supplies, backpacks, calculators and jeans.

Interactive map helps locate free breakfast and lunch summer programs for children

Free meals are waiting for children in the long summer weeks ahead, and an online interactive map can help families find where they are.

What a day! Triumphant Caring Communities Day shines with joy and love

“This is Kansas City. Everybody coming together.” Caring Communities Day can be measured by many large numbers, starting with a crowd that exceeded two thousand people. But take a look at the stories and images of the day and see how Caring Communities measure optimism, pride and power.

Joy of art: LINC, KCYA team up to help kids find their voice

Summertime and all its wide-open joy brings opportunities for something different, something more. LINC’s partnership with Kansas City Young Audiences — a staple of LINC’s after-school programming during the fall and spring — can really stretch during June and July. See how LINC students can attend a camp for free.

Check out all the prizes waiting for you at Caring Communities Day 2023

We are seriously loaded with prizes that we’re giving away at Caring Communities Day this Saturday, June 10. Take a look at the video. Check out our photo gallery. We’ve got big raffle give-away prizes like grills, air fryers and Chiefs tailgating gear. And we’ve got hundreds of game prizes for all ages.

Line up LINC families! It's time to enroll for summer

June is just around the corner and LINC’s Caring Communities team will be there with before- and after-school programs, ready for lots of recreational fun and learning.

Begin the enrollment process now by filling out the online form at kclinc.org/summer.

Genesis School petitions court to keep doors open

Genesis School’s fight to stay open is heading to court. The Kansas City public charter school filed a petition this week in Cole County Circuit Court after the Missouri state school board on Monday, without addressing admitted flaws in the process, upheld the state’s charter school commission’s decision earlier this year to revoke the school’s charter.

Genesis School charter revoked; expects to appeal to state school board

By a 6-to-1 decision, the Missouri Charter Public School Commission voted to revoke Genesis School’s charter Feb. 15 — a decision that Genesis expects it will appeal to the state school board.

Genesis supporters crowd public hearing in defense of community school

For the life of a community school, nothing could be more dire than what brought a tense and overflowing crowd into an east Kansas City meeting room Monday night. Genesis School, attorney Chuck Hatfield said, is staring down a “death penalty.”

Remembering 2022: Our year in photos

Take a look back. LINC celebrates a full year of Caring Communities, with great appreciation for so many partners and volunteers who all came together to help strengthen children, families and neighborhoods.

Operation Toys for Tots: LINC, U.S. Marine Corps spread holiday cheer

It’s not a simple operation, bagging up 200 toys for every LINC Caring Communities site. But the U.S. Marine Corps and LINC managed it again, packing the big red sacks of toys into an assortment of LINC staff’s pickups, vans, SUVs and one fully loaded U-Haul to cap off another Toys for Tots mission.

LINC, First book team up to send children home with three thousand new books

Three thousand and four, to be exact. LINC made sure children and their Caring Communities families had new books to take home for the holidays, continuing a collaboration with the non-profit First Book to help inspire a lifetime of reading.