MORAN — In the “breadbasket of America,” the grocery store shelves in Moran will now sit bare. With the closing of Marmaton Market, the town’s only grocery store, residents are left without a place to buy fresh milk, vegetables, or meat — a stark irony in a state that feeds much of the world.
The loss pushes the Moran community closer to what experts call a food desert, where access to healthy, affordable food is measured not in minutes but in miles. Food deserts are low-income areas where residents have limited access to supermarkets — defined by the USDA as more than one mile away in urban areas or over 10 miles in rural regions. The Mildred Store, about eight miles north of Moran, is now Moran’s closest source of fresh foods. About 19 million Americans, roughly 6% of the U.S. population, live in food deserts.
The consequences go beyond inconvenience. Many residents lack access to reliable transportation, making grocery trips to neighboring towns difficult or impossible. Studies have shown that groceries in food deserts also tend to cost more. Milk is about 5% higher and cereal sometimes 25% more than in suburban markets, meaning low-income families often pay more for less.
Greta Ingle, Lead Care Coordinator at Thrive Allen County, explained the cascading effects of such closures. “A lot of low-income people do not have ways to get to the grocery store,” she said. “So then they have to rely on convenience stores or dollar stores. They’re not the best or healthiest foods.”
Ingle added that social connections are also affected. “Just being able to have a place where people can meet and gather — small towns need that,” she said. While solutions like delivery from nearby stores exist in theory, Ingle cautioned that costs and limitations remain barriers. “People are still paying out-of-pocket for delivery options,” she said.
Ingle noted the strain caused by a sluggish economy. As part of her role at Thrive, Ingle assists consumers with Medicaid, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and LIEAP applications. “In the last two or three weeks, I’ve seen more people apply for SNAP than I have in the past,” she said. “The economy, medicines, insurance — everything’s gone up, so they have less money to buy groceries.”
Major federal cuts to SNAP, totaling $186 billion over 10 years, were signed into law in July as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” These cuts will affect millions of participants through stricter eligibility requirements, reduced benefits, and a shift of significant costs to states.
In Allen County, the food insecurity rate sits at 14.7%, with 46% of the population qualifying for SNAP benefits.
BARBARA BUTTON, Executive Director of Humanity House — which provides food, utility assistance, and community programs — has seen the effects of these economic challenges firsthand. She said food demand at their pantry has surged in recent months. “We were typically doing 4,500 to 5,000 pounds per month. In July, it jumped to around 8,000 pounds,” Button said. “I thought maybe it was a fluke, but the next month it was still close to 7,000. This may be the new norm.”
Button pointed to factors like rising costs and nearby store closures as contributing to the increase. “You would have thought it would drop once kids went back to school and were getting lunches, but that isn’t what happened,” she explained.
Humanity House has also seen more first-time visitors, including families who work but can no longer make ends meet. “These are folks in the gap — not meeting the government’s definition of poverty but still struggling to put food on the table,” she said.
The closure of grocery stores in places like Erie and Moran has made the situation more urgent. “Many people don’t have transportation to just go anywhere for food,” Button said. At times, she says the organization has resorted to personally delivering food to families in outlying towns. “It’s not our usual thing, but if that’s what we have to do to help some folks out, that’s what we have to do,” she said.
Button said protein remains a critical need. “Our biggest issue right now is sources of protein — beef, pork, chicken, eggs,” she explained. “We’ve had some donations that we greatly appreciate, but it’s not enough.” She noted that high wholesale costs and minimum-order requirements make it difficult for small communities or nonprofits to purchase in bulk.
Button believes addressing food insecurity will take a “neighbors helping neighbors” approach. Community gardens, food donations, and partnerships with transportation providers could help close the gap, she said. “It’s going to take all of us doing what we can to pull this off.”
DANIEL GILE, manager of G&W Foods in Iola, said the loss of Moran’s store represents the difficult realities facing rural grocers. Inflation and rising payroll costs remain the biggest challenges, he explained. “The average hourly salary in Iola is probably $12 an hour — maybe closer to $14 now,” Gile said, noting that competing wages at larger local employers make staffing harder.
For Marmaton Market, freight costs also played a role. While stores like G&W don’t face significant shipping charges, Gile said smaller operations often do. “They fought an uphill battle regardless of what the price of milk was, just by their location and volume,” he said.
