November 2025

As I was trying to figure out what to write about for the November topic, I thought I would approach things a little bit differently this month. See for me, November is a month of reflection about the past year’s events. It is a month that I practice renewal of thankfulness and gratitude if I seem to have lost my steam. For me this is especially important as the holidays I celebrate come nearer. One of things I’m grateful for is my current situation in life. And you may think, well that is so general Dr. Fiscus so let me explain. Five years ago, I was able to move back to a community that I fell in love with when I came to ATSU-KCOM as a medical student many years previous. There were a lot of things that were missing in my medical practice and daily life at that time. One of those things was a sense of community and the opportunity to be involved. And Kirksville, while it had changed, still had that sense of community that I was yearning for. Being a community is much more important these days as many of our family, friends and neighbors face difficult times.

Why is community and giving back so important to me? Growing up in a rural Indiana town, my family struggled like many of you may be. My mother was a teen parent without a high school education. She relied on things such as WIC, children’s Medicaid (known as CHIP now) and food stamps (SNAP). Prior to getting enrolled in these programs, I remember the stress she felt trying to feed my sister and me. We relied on the kindness of community donations, orange government cheese and powdered milk to scrape by. I especially remember when we had no food in the house and she hitchhiked with us kids to a distant family member many miles away for help. That person gladly opened her door and the fried egg she made me was the best thing I had tasted in a while. I was lucky when we were able to get food stamps because being hungry and trying to learn at school was difficult. I received free lunch but an empty belly from breakfast was very distracting. Would I have been able to achieve where I am today without that assistance? I’m thankful that I didn’t have to find out. Regular healthy meals are extremely important for children’s brains to focus and develop. Food is important for everyone to be able to work and be productive. Now more than ever with the price of groceries (and everything else) increasing, I’m thankful to be able to not only support myself but also give donations, whether monetary or physical items, to my community so that my friends, neighbors and patients do not have to experience food scarcity as bad as I remember as a child. For those of us who can, I encourage you to donate something over the next few months to help our friends. This could be money, food items or even just an hour of your time to volunteer.

If you are experiencing food insecurity, remember there are programs available in our community that can help you through difficult times, whether via a food pantry or a prepared hot meal. Below you will find a list of a few of those programs. Some have age limits, certain identification requirements or pre-registration so make sure to call ahead!

Pantry for Adair County: (660) 341-3955

Salvation Army: (660) 665-7885

YMCA: (660) 665-1922

Hamilton Street Baptist Church Mobile Food Pantry: (660) 665-4633

CAPNEMO: (660) 665-9855

WIC: (660) 785-3237

Northeast Missouri Senior Citizen Services: (660) 665-4682

Our Table KVMO: (660) 665-8539

ATSU Hope's Kitchen: (660) 665-1006