Mission: Empowering individuals and families to self-sufficiency through the delivery of direct emergency assistance, education and advocacy since 1976.

Programs: Emergency assistance: cac offers many forms of emergency assistance, including: food pantry, meals on wheels (mow), clothing/necessities, rent/utilities and medical. Food pantry: previously named harvesters' "agency of the year", cac maintains the largest food pantry serving south kansas city. Food from the pantry comes from a variety of sources, including: individual donations, food drives, the mid-continent library's "food for fines" program, area churches and businesses, harvesters', and the personal gardens of community members. Through our pantries, we serve over 5,000 unduplicated people in south kansas city every year. Mow: through a collaboration with mid-america regional council and the salvation army, we offer mow to people aged 60 and up who would otherwise struggle to secure food on a consistent basis. Mow provides a hot lunch to seniors every day, monday-friday. These meals are delivered through a network of community-minded individuals who each volunteer to take on a route of 12-15 clients one day a week. While dropping off meals, volunteers regularly report building meaningful and lasting relationships with the people receiving meals. Clothing/necessities: through our clothing closet, we provide people with work- or school-appropriate clothes, seasonal attire, as well as every day clothes. In addition to clothing, we are able to provide various other necessities such as small household appliances, toiletries, and more. Medical: through a partnership with the kansas city medicine cabinet, we are able to provide emergency medical assistance to those in need. This includes filling prescriptions, emergency dental care, eye exams and glasses, and a variety of medical needs.

education/advocacy: cac offers a variety of services to provide education and advocacy for our clients, including: case management, life skills classes and job search assistance. Case management: open to those in need, regardless of whether or not they live in south kansas city. Priority for case management is given to homeless individuals and families, and those at high risk of homelessness. Life skills classes: life skills classes are open to the general public and are offered throughout the year. They typically run as a six-week series with classes twice a week. Topics covered include: credit repair and home buying, banking and savings, budgeting & bargain shopping, goal setting and planning, avoiding medical debt, budgeting and grocery shopping on food stamps, eating healthily on a budget, dressing for interviews, preparing for interviews, soft skills for employment. Job search assistance: cac has computers available for people wishing to search for and/or apply to jobs. Case managers are on hand to help people through this process.

seasonal programs: cac offers a variety of seasonal programs, including: backsnack program, thanksgiving meals, holiday store and weather-related programs. Thanksgiving meals: every year, cac provides approximately 100 families with thanksgiving meals assistance. Weather-related programs: cac offers a variety of weather-related programs and services including distributing blankets, space heaters, coats, gloves, mittens, hats and scarves in the winter; and distributing fans in the summer.