NEOSHO, Mo. — One Neosho park will soon be more inclusive for kids.

The city received a 5,000 dollar grant from the Arvest Foundation. the money will go towards a new ADA inclusive swing set, a sidewalk and mulch in big spring park.

Something Parks Director Clint Dalbom says is important for kids.

“We want this park to be used by all walks, you know anybody to have access to this. And young people need places to play. And an outdoor setting like this, a pretty setting like this, it’s very important,” said Clint Dalbom, Neosho Parks Director

The swing set is expected to be fully operational come early spring.

JOPLIN, Mo. — A food shortage for schools is causing Joplin to change how it operates.

This shortage is causing the schools to put out orders for food up to a month in advance. And even though they order well in advance, many items are still on backorder

Joplin Schools are currently finding it hard to come by chicken, pizza, individually wrapped breakfast sandwiches, yogurt and even Styrofoam plates and cups.

Because of this, they’ve had to improvise.

“If we don’t have a chicken biscuit, we sub out something else. So, we’re always offering food to the students, it just may not be the largest variety we’re accustomed to,” said Rick Kenkel – Joplin Schools Director For Child Nutrition.

Because of this, they’ve also been spending more money to feed students.

“We do a contract bid every year, and they’ve all come back and said due to national shortages, they can’t get it, they’re raising their prices a little bit,” said Kenkel.

With higher prices and less options, the district is forced to buy in bulk up to a month in advance.

While it’s efficient, it also causes more work.

“We want them individually wrapped, so that the students so the students don’t touch other food, or ready to eat foods, so we will then be effected in that fashion that we have an increased labor,” said Kenkel.

Kenkel adds if it wasn’t for their warehouse, they wouldn’t be able to do any of this.

“The Joplin School District is very fortunate to have a warehouse. If we were a school who did not have a warehouse, we couldn’t definitely, couldn’t store quantities of that far in advance,” said Kenkel.

Although certain food options aren’t available, East Middle Principal, Jason Cravens says they don’t notice the shortage thanks to the work of their staff.

“We have not seen any side affects to food shortages at the school, and again our kids are fed well, lunches flow well and things are going well in that area,” said Jason Cravens, East Middle School Principal.

Joplin Schools have six different food distributors to help them out as well.

Kenkel adds that helps them out greatly during the shortage because of one distributor doesn’t have an item, they have other options to choose from.

JOPLIN, Mo. — There’s good news for Joplin area residents who make their living in agriculture.

According to a report from “commodity-dot-com” — people in the Joplin metro who work in farming, fishing and forestry, make a cost-of-living-adjusted wage of over 37 thousand dollars a year.

Not bad, considering the national average is nearly 30 thousand.

Not bad for business either.

“From a cost of doing business standpoint our cost of doing business is unparalleled with I-44 and 49 and US 69 across the region, workers can get to and from work pretty easily, commodities coming in and out of the region uh pretty easily uh we’re pretty heavy into food and beverage manufacturing,” said Tony Robyn, Director, MOKAN Partnership.

More good news to come out of the report.

Joplin is the 53rd best paying small metro area in the county for agricultural workers.

It’s also the 78th highest compensated area overall. As a state, Missouri ranks 21st for Ag employee compensation.

JOPLIN, Mo. — Some students choose their majors prior to the start of college, but, of course, that isn’t always the case for every student.

At Missouri Southern, that’s where the university’s ACTS department comes in. It stands for Advising, Counseling and Testing Services.

Every year, it puts on this event — a Major-Minor Fair.

A way to help educate students when it comes to the different options from which they have to choose.

“It’s for all those undecided majors, usually freshmen and sophomores to kind of meet all the different departments that are out there and uh we’re hoping they find their academic home and then have a major and find an advisor,” said Dr. William Mountz, MSSU Advising, Counseling & Testing Services.

This event started in 2011. Last year’s version was done virtually, due to the pandemic.