>> Kentucky.

Farmers will be able to sell soybeans to China.

But how does this deal compare to sales numbers of the past?

>> If we're not reading to our children, if the children aren't reading a book, then we're losing a great deal, and that's going to be very difficult to get back as they grow older.

>> Why many parents are skipping a once common bedtime ritual with their children.

>> Fall in Kentucky is almost, almost like a cult following.

>> And they're going hog wild over fall in the town of Nancy.

>> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for this Thursday, October the 30th, I'm Renee Shaw in our Louisville studios downtown, and we thank you so much for joining us this evening.

We could be two days away from 40 million Americans and close to 600,000 Kentuckians losing their SNAP benefits.

The program is better known as food stamps.

In Wolfe County, 31% of people are on snap.

Nikki Stacy, founder of the Hazel Green Food Project in Wolfe County, is asking Governor Andy Beshear to call a special session to deal with this crisis.

This was her plea on Facebook.

>> What we need you all to do is we need you to call your governor's office.

This is this is how we're going to.

This is the only way we can solve this.

If the governor calls a special session, gets our people or our state representatives, our senators back in Frankfort, they can call special session, declare a state of emergency for Kentucky, just like all the other states have followed suit.

We have Virginia that's already done that and a couple of others.

And this is what Kentucky needs.

>> Some state lawmakers are also calling for a special session.

The governor was asked about that today.

>> What we're looking at our options right now, and I think a number of options are on the table.

I'm not sure a special session would be necessary.

Just what we can't do, though, is we can't use the existing platform of Snap and simply put, state dollars through it.

We've got some very clear instruction from the federal government that that is not allowed.

And so what that means is any additional help that we may be able to provide certainly isn't going to be perfect and certainly won't make up for this this fall hit.

>> People across Kentucky are taking action to deal with this.

This week, The Healing Place in Louisville launched the Neighbors Food Pantry.

It's a partnership with Dare to Care to help distribute food to those who need it.

Our Kelsey Starks has more on this new initiative.

>> John Mark and Chandra Justus are both with the Healing Place.

And here to talk a little bit about this new initiative.

Th Neighbors Pantry.

What spawned this?

>> We have a commitment to ensure that we're of West Louisville, in addition to being in West Louisville, where we've been located for 35 years.

Nothing brings people together like food.

And we also know that the zip codes in our vicinity are classified as overdose hot zones.

So we have people, we have neighbors nearby who are in need of our services that need to know that we're there, and that our recovery services are available at no cost to client.

So we had the idea to partner with Dare to Care, and they were receptive to that idea.

They've provided us some support and guidance, and we're really excited to unveil and debut the Neighbors Food Pantry.

>> And this just launched this week.

So tell us about the experience there.

Just being there and seeing the people in need.

>> So across both of our campuses in Louisville, we provide out of our kitchens around just under 900,000 meals per year.

And so through that, we also know that there is food insecurity.

Right?

And Dare to Care has helped us unveil that too.

They have a lot of a wealth of information.

So with that, we kind of expanded and partnered with them to just step wider into our community, provide some service in the way that we can to our neighbors.

And the launch was amazing.

We had 60 individual families that we served.

They were very grateful and had lots of questions.

Are you going to be doing this again?

Can we come back?

Absolutely.

You can come back.

>> Yeah.

And the answer is yes.

This is something that's going to be going on indefinitely.

>> It is.

It's it's a permanent commitment that we're making.

And our goal is to create service opportunities for our clients who are on site and packing food boxes and loading them into cars, interacting with neighbors, and then providing that additional bit of food security to folks in the neighborhood.

And we want to make that a permanent part of our operation.

>> Yeah.

And and now, right now, specifically, I know with the expiration potentially of the Snap benefits that's affecting so many people, how is all of this affecting you all to as an organization?

>> We we as Chandra mentioned, we serve just under 900,000 meals a day, and we are reliant on partnerships with our clients through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program, to be able to serve those meals.

And so the the potential effect on us is pretty significant.

We haven't experienced it yet, but the clock is ticking and we're really anxious for the folks in Congress to do their jobs and and get the government reopened.

>> Yeah.

And a lot of people may not understand exactly what it is you all do.

So explain what that what that is.

>> So we offer hope to people who need it.

So people that are suffering from substance abuse, mental health issues and disorders, even co-occurring disorders and substance abuse so they can come and don't have to have a penny.

They don't have to have an ID, they just show up and you can retain our services for 6 to 9 months, maybe even a year.

Yeah, as long as you need.

>> Yeah.

And we we really specialize in partnering with our clients to restore meaningful and productive lives in the wake of alcoholism and addiction.

Oftentimes, homelessness and our clients come in the door, oftentimes broken, distanced from their families and their kids mired in addiction and alcoholism.

And nine months later, they leave completely transformed.

We get every day to witness those miracles happen on a daily basis, and it's really no exaggeration.

It's happening every day.

>> Yeah, it's an incredible services that you all offer free of charge.

And so this neighbor's pantry is kind of a continuation of that because there are no requirements.

It is free for anyone who needs it.

That's incredible.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

And tell me why that's so important at this, this particular moment in time when we know there are a lot of people who need it.

>> It's very important to us to provide things that are not difficult to attain.

Right?

Everything tends to be, you know, you have to have this or that to get this back in back.

So just like our program, no barriers, right.

So we want this to mirror that.

We don't want to try to help provide this service to the community and where there's a need for food with barriers attached and no strings.

Right.

We just want to be no strings attached.

If you need help, come and we will help.

>> Yeah.

>> And the disease of addiction is exacerbated by economic distress.

We know that.

The data tells us that.

Experience tells us that.

And the areas where we're located in West Louisville happened to be some of the areas that are in most chronic economic distress because of long time underinvestment and a whole host of other reasons.

And we want to make sure that our neighbors, first and foremost, know of the services that are available to them on a daily basis.

And there's nothing that brings together people like food.

>> Well, thank you all so much for being here.

We appreciate it very much.

>> And Kelsey.

>> The THP is neighbors pantry is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Back to you.

>> Thank you so much, Kelsey.

You can find the neighbors Food Pantry at the Healing Place Women's Campus on South 15th Street from 11 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as they're also in need of volunteers.

And you can find out more information on how to get involved on their website, which is the Healing place.org.

Some good news for some Kentucky farmers.

The Trump administration says it's reached a deal with China that will allow U.S.

soybean exports to resume.

China stopped buying U.S.

soybeans earlier in the year because of new U.S.

tariffs against China that hurt soybean farmers across America, including right here in Kentucky, according to the Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent.

China will buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans from the U.S.

between now and January and 25 million a year after that, according to the Reuters news service.

The U.S.

exported about 27 million metric tons of soybeans to China in 2024.

Caleb Ragland is president of the American Soybean Association and lives in LaRue County in Kentucky.

He says while the U.S.

and China may not always agree politically, the two countries need each other economically.

>> It's very positive news.

We still are waiting on many details that are still unknown, but the initial reaction is we have commitments to buy similar amounts, tonnage wise, of what's been used the last three years by by the Chinese.

And as our biggest export partner, them being gone from the market the last few months has been a major obstacle for our industry.

And news of them coming back is exciting.

We still have to get the details figured out and we have to have follow through.

This is a commitment.

We don't have cash on the Barrelhead yet and we haven't made the deliveries.

So once those things take place over the next few weeks and months, it will be even more excitement.

But it's very positive.

>> President Donald Trump said he could formally sign a trade deal with China, quote, pretty soon, end quote.

The man sentenced after stabbing a six year old boy to death in Versailles, Kentucky, is back behind bars in the Commonwealth.

Now, state lawmakers are calling on the Kentucky Parole Board to make sure he stays there a while longer.

Ronald Exantus was found legally insane in the 2015 murder of six Year-Old Logan Tipton, but he was found guilty of assaulting members of Tipton's family.

Exantus was released from prison earlier this month after serving ten years of a 20 year sentence.

The Kentucky Parole Board says it voted to keep Exantus in prison, but that state law required he be released through the Mandatory Reentry Supervision program.

Exantus was on parole in Florida, where he was arrested for failing to register as a convicted felon.

He's now at the Kentucky State Reformatory in Lagrange.

In a letter to the parole Board, several members of the Kentucky General Assembly are asking that they deem him ineligible for release.

Quote, it is critical for both public safety and his own well-being that the Parole Board further consider whether lifelong supervision and mental health treatment, following completion of his full sentence, are appropriate and necessary to prevent further harm, end quote.

In other news, a Northern Kentucky mother is suing the gaming platform Roblox months after her teenage daughter's suicide.

According to the Lexington Herald leader Jamie Seitz of Boone County says the violent images on Roblox pushed her daughter, 13 year old Audrey Hine, to take her own life last December.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued Roblox earlier this month.

Louisiana has also filed suit.

Roblox is an online platform that lets participants play games in a virtual universe.

It's estimated two thirds of American children ages 9 to 12 take part.

An appeals court is siding with former Governor Matt Bevin.

18 year old adopted son, as he seeks child support from Bevin and his ex-wife, former First Lady Glenna Bevin.

Jonah Bevin says he's entitled to money after spending time at boarding schools for so-called troubled teens.

According to the Courier-Journal, the issue is whether he received a legitimate education at those boarding schools, including one in Jamaica, raided by police over abuse accusations.

The appeals court ruling means Jonah Bevin's push for child support can move forward.

The state is banning the use of aircraft, including unmanned drones, for hunting and fishing.

The Kentucky Lantern reports the new regulation went into effect earlier this month.

It makes it illegal to use any kind of aircraft to fish or hunt, to drive a herd for purposes of hunting, and to harass wildlife.

The Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Energy approved the regulation mid-October.

There are some exceptions.

The law says Kentucky Fish and Wildlife employees, contractors acting on the agency's behalf, and commercial fishermen can still use aircraft in some situations, like removing invasive carp.

The department says the new regulation will provide guidance and a framework for game wardens to use while investigating potential violations.

The number of parents reading to their children is at an all time low.

That's according to a new study by book publisher Harper Collins, who found that 41% of kids four years old and younger are being read to frequently.

In 2012, that number was 64%.

The parents least likely to read to their children Gen Z. Bill Goodman, executive director of Kentucky Humanities, recently wrote an op ed piece on this study, and he spoke with us about it and what it means for literacy efforts.

Our first question to him, why are so few Gen Z parents interested in reading to their children?

>> One I think at times it's challenging for the parent to get fully involved in a child's book if they don't have any interest in it at all.

It might be boring to them.

They might think they are trying to force a habit on their child.

They're not interested in in pursuing that.

But two, I think that without question.

And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

We're all so devoted to our devices these days.

Everyone has a phone, an enormous number of children, teenagers, young people, Gen Z-ers all the way up to people my age are relying on their phones more than they ever have before.

There's an incredible number of phones out there, especially phones, tablets, ways to interact with technology, games.

And along with that comes the the fact that Gen Z-ers and others too, aren't reading as often and as much as they used to.

So it's a it's a real challenge.

But what I think we at Kentucky Humanities are trying to do, along with a number of other literacy organizations, is bring people back to the book, bring people back to a time when a parent can have some quiet time with a child, whether it's after dinner or before bedtime.

Find something that is of interest to the adult and the child.

It might take a little bit of work.

It can probably Google an interest that they have and find something that's been written about it that they want to share with their child.

So it's a it's a challenging time for publishers and for people who want to bring people back into libraries, back into literacy organizations.

And it's not going to happen overnight because, again, we are so locked in and married to our devices in the state of Kentucky in just the the the latest study, reading scores for fourth graders, eighth graders are up slightly.

But at one time, not too long ago, we were at 36th in the nation.

And I don't think anybody wants to be satisfied with with being 36.

When you read to a child, you're helping that child with critical thinking, with problem solving.

You're discussing those things.

You're you're looking at the character in the book and how that character maneuvers through society and civilization.

They are learning socialization.

They're learning how to to be a friend to somebody, to relate to an adult.

There are a number of factors that if we're not reading to our children, if the children aren't reading a book, then we're losing a great deal.

And that's going to be very difficult to get back as they grow older.

They need that now as a base.

There's a move afoot, as you know, in the state of Kentucky for preschool or pre-K, getting those kids involved before they go into kindergarten or the first grade.

It's very important that we we reintroduce these parents that we're talking about.

And I don't want to to pick on the Gen Z's.

They are they just need to be brought back into the fold.

And, and and given the information that if they read to their child before bed each night or at a at a particular time during the day, on the weekends, get a habit started.

A good habit, not a bad habit, but a good habit.

I think we'll see those test scores improve even more.

>> Tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition.

More of our conversation with our good friend Bill Goodman, who shares how programs like the Kentucky Book Festival, presented by the Kentucky Humanities, helps encourage literacy and reading in children, from pumpkin patches to apple orchards, hayrides to Halloween, there are countless traditions that go with the fall season.

This next story from the archives of our friends at Kentucky Life, touches on a few of those traditions in Mansi, Kentucky, where two local farms have become yearly attractions.

>> Those are.

There you go.

Here.

Hold it.

>> Haney's Apple Farm has been an apple orchard for around 150 years.

I am the fifth generation operating here in Nancy, Kentucky.

And we've been trying to come up with as many apples as we can for the public as often as we can.

It started off as more of a traditional farm with row crops and that sort of thing.

But there have always been apples on the orchard, probably about 75, 80 years ago, we really started expanding the apples that we actually planted on the farm.

My grandfather really grew it into more of an apple orchard than a traditional farm.

My father and my uncle are the current owners.

They have been running it for a little over 50 years.

They took it over from my grandfather, and he he kind of helped them out for about 20 years until he passed on.

And then they've been running it ever since.

>> We've been here for since 1870.

In our family, growing fruit first trees were planted in 1870.

Our busy time is is in the fall.

I mean, we're busy during the summer too, with different varieties of apples and and peaches.

But fall is is is where it's all at.

I mean, we just have the school tours and the parents that come with them and, and people come again from a long distance to come here.

And it's sort of a tradition with a lot of families.

>> The things that we do in the fall are geared primarily towards you pick apples, but we do have a playground, things for the kids.

And we do a lot of tours through the week for local school groups.

We have some of them that come from 2 or 3 counties away, and we have a lot of adults who come in now who say, the first time I came here was on a tour with my school.

So that's really helped us reach that population and kind of start increasing it.

Of the people who want to come back, who bring their children back, and we hope to kind of just keep that going.

We want those those kids that come in today to bring their kids in 20 years from now.

And we want to make sure that we're here to be able to do that.

One of the bigger fall traditions around here, obviously, is people taking a full day on a Saturday, and they might go to to bear wallow as a, as a starter for the day and then come by us on the way back or vice versa.

>> Barwala farm is a family tradition farm.

Pumpkin patch, corn maze.

Located in Nancy, Kentucky Barwala has been here since 1999.

With that, I mean, we've also I mean, we've obviously we've become a family tradition for a lot of people.

We're seeing a lot of a lot of return visitors for from, from the very beginning.

And those, those people are bringing their kids back and even been here long enough.

Now that we're starting to see some grandkids.

>> Fall in Kentucky is almost, almost like a cult following.

I mean, it really is.

As soon as that first Christmas morning hits, it's like, all right, let's get our sweaters on and our boots on.

And it's family picture time, and it's pumpkin patch weather and it's hayride weather.

And let's do a bonfire.

I mean, it's almost like a checklist in southern Kentucky for like, fall.

>> I've been on the farm since I was old enough to walk, so I don't know any any life any different.

So a lot of our passion behind barrel Wallow and behind the fall traditions and bringing people out to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze started in, started in conversation between me and my wife.

That how important agritourism and getting kids on the farm and families on the farm.

We want the connection back to agriculture from the public.

We don't want to hide anything from the public.

We're proud of what we do.

We're proud of how we take care of our land and and our animals.

And we want people to see that.

So.

So it's really an honor to get people back out here on the farm and let them see.

When you take a hayride through Beruwala, you see soybeans, you see corn, you see whatever crops we've got in the field that year.

You might even I mean, there's been years in the past we've been harvesting while we're open.

So you get the opportunity to see those things.

I want kids picking a pumpkin from a five.

A lot of people that are in the industry doing what we're doing are bringing in pumpkins, and they're picking them up out of a grass field somewhere.

I want kids to to have the experience of understanding that pumpkins don't grow on trees.

They grow on vines in a in a field.

And I want them to see that when people think about fall, they think about pumpkins and they think about the changing of the leaves, and they think about, you know, going and doing something with your community, you know, with their family somewhere in the community.

And I think that's kind of what Beruwala offers.

And I think that's kind of what you see in our county and in our area, no different than any other in the state is that, you know, come fall, people are looking for, for to go outside and get that capture, that one last little bit of, of nice weather before the snow starts flying.

>> Memories here I feel like are a good thing and it really ties our community together.

Memories that are memories that I mean, even at the coffee shop, Mill Springs, you know, we we went to Beruwala and then we learned about the Civil War.

I mean, there's so much here to offer and so much here to really bring families together, I think is very important.

>> Enjoy more great stories like that.

On Kentucky life with Chip Holston Saturday nights at 8:00 eastern, seven central, right here on KET.

But before that, we'll see you tomorrow night right here on