by Dalton Black, executive director
At our recent event, Between Wheat and Want: A Conversation with Sarah Smarsh, we gathered with community members to look more closely at what it means to live on the edge in Kansas. Sarah, a Kansas-born writer who has chronicled rural life and working-class struggles, reminded us that behind the statistics are real families—our neighbors—navigating hard choices every single day. Her book, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was published in 2018.
When she read from her new book Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class, the room was silent. In the passage, she wrote about her father, Nick Smarsh, who has spent decades working in a field that’s always been unstable, with grueling hours, long stretches on the road, and little safety net. Now older, he faces even steeper challenges. The steady paycheck that once seemed just enough has become less certain, and the physical toll of the work grows heavier by the year. You could hear in Sarah’s voice as she shared not just his story, but the story of countless men and women who age out of industries that demand so much and give back so little security.
Listening to her, many of us were reminded that ALICE isn’t just a statistic; it’s our neighbors, our parents, and sometimes ourselves. ALICE—Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed—represents working families who earn above the federal poverty level but still can’t afford the basics of housing, childcare, food, transportation, and healthcare. In Harvey County, 26% of households fall into this ALICE category, with another 9% living below the poverty line. Marion County faces similar realities, with 29% ALICE and 10% below poverty. That means that nearly 4 in 10 households in our two counties are struggling to make ends meet.
These numbers are more than data points. They show us that “working hard” is no longer a guarantee of stability. Rising costs of living, limited childcare options, and housing shortages leave families vulnerable, even when they’re doing everything “right.” As Sarah put it during our conversation, this is a systemic challenge—not an individual failure.
At United Way of Harvey and Marion Counties, we’ve taken this to heart. Our work is grounded in the belief that upward mobility should not be reserved only for those born into wealth. That’s why all four of our focus areas—Youth Opportunity, Healthy Community, Financial Security, and Community Resiliency—connect back to creating pathways for families to rise.
- We invest in programs that make childcare affordable and accessible, because parents can’t work if they don’t have safe places for their kids.
- We support food access initiatives, because healthy meals are the foundation for learning and long-term health.
- We champion housing stability, because when families have a secure home, everything else becomes more possible.
- We build coalitions for resilience, ensuring that in times of crisis, families don’t have to weather the storm alone.
The ALICE data is sobering, but it also gives us direction. It tells us where the gaps are, where families are falling through, and where we can step in—not just with short-term aid, but with long-term solutions.
Our mission is simple but urgent: to ensure every household in Harvey and Marion Counties has the chance to not just get by, but to move up.
Together with partners, neighbors, and leaders like Sarah Smarsh who shine a light on the reality of working-class life, we’re building communities where families don’t have to choose between paying rent and buying groceries, where opportunity is real, and where upward mobility is possible for all.
The United Way 