By U.S. Sen. JERRY MORAN, R-Kan.

As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this week, families and friends come together to reflect, give thanks and enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving feast. However, millions – in fact, one in six Americans – struggle each day to even get enough food to eat. The unfortunate reality is that food insecurity exists in every community in our nation.

Living in the breadbasket of America, it can sometimes be difficult to comprehend the prevalence of hunger at home and around the world. Yet, hunger is real – it threatens the future of millions every day. Hunger creates political instability, stunts economic growth, and robs individuals of their dignity and self-potential.

When I travel throughout our state, I recognize the impact of hunger in our communities. I also appreciate how Kansans react to this problem with compassion and a genuine desire to help our friends and neighbors prosper. I recently visited the Flint Hills Breadbasket to learn more about their mission of minimizing hunger and poverty in the Manhattan area. For 32 years, they have been collecting and distributing food with the help of many volunteers and churches. Last year, volunteers created and distributed more than 200 Thanksgiving baskets to food-insecure families. I was also encouraged to learn that many of the individuals receiving food are actively trying to find employment and working to improve their lives.

To help food banks and the Americans they serve, last year I introduced bipartisan legislation that encourages businesses and farms to donate surplus food to local food banks. The Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Act permanently extends a tax credit for donating food and expands the credit to all businesses including small businesses, farmers, ranchers and restaurant owners. Permanently extending the hunger relief tax incentive will increase food bank contributions and help ensure that less food goes to waste. I hopeful commonsense legislation like this is soon considered with a new Senate Majority in the 114th Congress.

Many Kansans – including former Senator Bob Dole and former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman – have worked to end hunger at home and abroad. I appreciate their efforts and the individuals who continue to raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity – oftentimes an invisible tragedy. In my effort to represent this spirit of Kansans, I served as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus for four years in the U.S. House of Representatives and currently co-chair the Senate Hunger Caucus. Established in 2004, the Senate Hunger Caucus exists to promote anti-hunger causes, provide a forum for briefings about hunger issues, and facilitate communication between those working to combat hunger and lawmakers who support programs and policies assisting those in need.

As part of my role on the Senate Hunger Caucus, I have met with individuals and organizations that are working tirelessly to fight hunger around the globe like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They believe that helping farm families increase agricultural development and production is the most effective way to reduce hunger and poverty over the long term.

I am of the belief that we change the world one soul, one person at a time. This Thanksgiving, I hope you will consider supporting or volunteering at an organization like the Flint Hills Breadbasket in your community. Just a few hours of your time giving back can help make this holiday a memorable one for you, your family and for those in need.

Robba and I join all Kansans in celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, and giving thanks for our blessings. I am especially grateful for the service and charitable organizations that support our communities and those in need. I hope you and your families also enjoy time together and have the chance to reflect on all we have to be thankful for – both as Kansans and Americans.

What’s wrong with this sentence?: Voter turnout at spring elections for school boards and local government offices is too low, less than turnout at fall elections for state and national government offices, and that’s a problem the Legislature can fix.

The grammar is fine. What’s wrong with the sentence is that, while grammatically good, it just doesn’t matter.

Legislators are looking hard at moving those spring elections where school board members, city councils, mayors and some other local officers are elected in fall elections in either the even-numbered years state and federal officials are elected or maybe the odd-numbered years when there are virtually no elections but voters could at least enjoy fall foliage when they drive to their voting places.

The issue that is being touted is that at those spring elections the voter turnout is low, half or less than the turnout at the August primary elections or November general elections.

And, that is described as a problem, or so Kansans are being told.

Now, it would be nice, of course, if every voter voted. But not every legal registered voter has to vote. It’s optional. Sure, we’ve all been brought up on the power of the vote, the responsibility of citizens to choose their leaders, but practically, some of those citizens just don’t care. And that, too, is their right.

Local candidates typically have less money to spend on campaigns than do state and national candidates. But, we’re thinking that if a city council candidate put out a flyer that he/she will have your street snowplowed first, or boosted the water pressure so you didn’t have to move the sprinkler as often, that might be a reason to vote in the spring. Or a school board candidate might propose that grade cards be simplified, just even letters, so your neighbor doesn’t brag about his kid’s C+ grade when yours brought home just a flat C. Might be a reason to make the drive to vote in the spring.

But, while voting is a right, it’s optional, and if people aren’t bright enough to figure that the level of government that has the most direct effect on their lives isn’t worth the time and work to vote, well, that’s their decision.

Interestingly, one part of a potential “fix” by the Legislature for this presumed problem is making those local elections, once they’re moved to a fall ballot, partisan. Yes, a Republican or Democratic mayor or city councilman or school board member.

Why partisan? Well, one likely reason is that if a school board member is elected as a member of a political party, rather than just someone interested in education, at some point, the party will “claim” responsibility for that candidate and presumably encourage the candidate to govern the schools in a way the party likes. More taxes, less taxes, teacher unions or discouraging teacher unions, shorter cheerleader skirts or whatever.

Suddenly, the school board member or council member or mayor is getting direction from the party. Good thing or not, that’s how things will move with making those elections partisan.

And, for those folks who don’t bother voting on local officials in the spring election, well, they’ve already parked the car and shown their photo ID, so they might as well go ahead and vote on every race on the ballot. That’s whether they know the candidates or have read about them or know or care about the local issues those local candidates campaign on.

Is there an upside to November elections and partisan local officials? That’s hard to tell. Local officials generally aren’t enthusiastic about it. Maybe that’s because they know their voters, or maybe because they just aren’t sure about putting the city council race at the bottom of a ballot with highly charged political races.

Or, maybe it’s because they think that the people who care enough about their local government to make a special trip in the spring to vote are the people they want deciding who makes the local government/school decisions.

If there’s no problem, what do you fix?

Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka, Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.