The Central Missouri Community Action Agency held its third meeting in Mexico designed around solving issues that lead to better health outcomes for the community.

The meeting was held on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at the Mexico Housing Authority Community Center with several different community leaders in attendance including educators and city officials from the eastern side of the county. The meeting is part of a series of meetings that will lead to an action plan.

The third meeting focused on the data indicators the group will use to formulate a “results-based accountability (RBA)” plan. Those indicators include the percentage of people who are food insecure, the percentage of youth considering or attempting suicide, the percentage of people without health insurance, the percentage of youth who used drugs or alcohol, the number of individuals receiving WIC, and the number of households receiving food stamps benefits (SNAP), and cause of death where in Audrain County the number of diabetes deaths outpaces the rest of the state.

The group broke out into separate smaller groups to discuss the issues and what came out of those discussions ended up being interesting fodder for the whole group. Food insecurity was a hot topic of discussion with Kim Archer from the Help Center in attendance. Archer said 1,123 households sought services at the Help Center’s food bank in July. The food bank in Vandalia served between 90 and 100 homes last month.

Chris Newbrough, public information officer and emergency planner for the Audrain County Health Department, said his department’s numbers for WIC and SNAP are down from their pre-COVID-19 levels. Before the pandemic, the department served about 600 WIC mothers compared to about 350 now. Newbrough said during the pandemic mothers could call a phone number and use a drive-up system to load their cards. Now they have to come into the office for a visit that lasts about 30 minutes.

“They got used to getting the phone call,” Newbrough said. “They’re dropping out of the program because they don’t want to come in.”

Kelly Lucero, the moderator for the group, said more and more people are also skeptical about turning over information. She said some of the hoops people have to jump through are also too cumbersome.

“There are a lot of people who don’t want to give up their information,” Lucero said. “We ask you about everything that’s ever happened to you in our applications.”

Newbrough also said food availability is an issue not only in the county but also in Mexico where both major grocery options are geographically located away from the city’s population.

The group also talked about mental health issues they are seeing with children in schools, issues with health insurance premiums, and wealth inequality.

The next meeting will focus on taking all of the information gathered and formulating a plan of action. Lucero reminded the group the goal is to make changes in the trends and not to shoot for specific numbers.

“Success in RBA is when you look at that forecasted trend and your action steps change it and you turn it,” Lucero said. “We’re not saying, ‘Oh we want a 25 percent increase.’ It’s not like that. If you have a 20 percent increase is that failure? You turned the curve.”