The ongoing government shutdown and disruption of Snap benefits have left many Kentucky families struggling to afford groceries.

Local nonprofit Black Soil is helping ease that burden through its Sprout Mobile Pharmacy market, offering free or low cost produce and groceries.

Kentucky Edition was there as the mobile market visited Lexington on Thursday.

We are kicking off our annual Aetna Better Health of Kentucky distributions, where we serve 800 families who are members of the Better Health Medicaid Program.

We're here at Castlewood Park in partnership with Exhilarating Inc.

and the Care Mobile Dentistry Clinic, providing folks with fresh apples, seasonal produce like winter squash, cauliflower, potatoes, being together, honey, as well as good milk.

Hills of kindness.

Eggs.

We're working with exhilarating to provide dental screenings, dental education products, cleanings, X-rays, exams, to get the community the care that they deserve.

This area is identified as a dental desert.

And so it has really helped a lot of people to know they can come here and ask their questions, especially if they're in pain.

I just retired in April, so I'm a 65 year old grandmother and this Social Security check just ain't hitting it.

So all this extra really helps.

And I love to cook, so it really helps me, you know, to come in, get some fresh produce.

I just had my first child last year, so she's a little over one now.

So trying to feed her has really been a big priority of mine, especially trying to feed her really good healthy foods.

And then with prices of food is really kind of, you know, made that hard and kind of difficult to do.

So having things like this around has really, made me enjoy that process of, you know, feed her finding good food, you know, going to the grocery store, scared now.

So things like this, you know, kind of, you know, makes it easy.

Our mission is to reach the underserved.

Really?

Anybody.

But we focus on the underserved.

The insurances that, some offices don't take.

We accept all of those, and we try to just break barriers, that patients experience when they are seeking dental care.

They get on the phone, they can't find an office.

Usually care accepts their insurance or has a reduced cash fee schedule.

And then we also break down the barrier of transportation because we can move into areas where patients live even before the snap freeze and cuts.

Black.

Okay.

Why did not accept EBT snap.

We have an eat local year round challenge where we already provide steep discounted prices for local food.

So this allows us to control our own supply chain, not be, at the ebbs and flows of federal programs that wish, there was a way that more people could actually know about it.

Because I'm sure there's a lot of other people other than me that need it and would appreciate, you know, Helping Hand.

It's really important to know what's offered inside your community, especially at times like this, to know, just things that we can kind of need to kind of fill that gap.

This is a time for empathy and empathy driven policymaking, moral driven budgeting, as well as, legislation that doesn't obstruct but pushes us forth to generational prosperity for all Kentuckians.

Each bag of groceries is valued at $50, but there's no charge for people who need the help.