Community isn’t a noun, but a verb. This is what Kristin Kessler, the manager of the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program (CHSC) for Kingston’s Department of Health and Wellness, learned from her work.

But with budget cuts at the federal level, she finds the people who provide services the community relies on, such as food and housing programs, are often forgotten. The Kingston Spotlight series, supported by the CHSC grant, was started to raise awareness and make a connection.

Kessler collaborated with professional documentarians and photographers to spotlight 10 community members part of organizations such as the Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative, the Complete Streets Advisory Council, local schools, the YMCA Farm Project and even the founder of Common Table, a food space in Kingston.

These are community members involved with education, combating food insecurity, and accessibility for people with disabilities. These include Devon Wood, the direct services and outreach coordinator for the Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative.

Kessler said his work isn’t just about giving people food but helping them connect with food in a “non-transactional” way and “self-determination” over their food, bridging the divide between those who can afford a grocery store and those who rely on food pantries.

Their stories were posted on the Live Well Kingston social media pages and newsletter, with each participant receiving $100 for participating and approving the content before it was shared. Kessler said this was about respecting the “context expertise” of each interviewee; their ability to speak from personal experience.

She had two main goals with the project.

“One, really wanting to show the strength and beauty of Kingston. I just think Kingston is such a special place, and it’s because of the people,” Kessler said. “Two, wanting to highlight what grant-funded work looks like.”

Federal budget cuts have impacted programs across the country, including in Ulster County, where Kessler describes a “trickle-down” effect; food pantries are no longer receiving as many offerings from the regional food bank because those food banks are receiving less from the federal government.

Kingston will also no longer be able to provide SNAP-ed, a federally funded program that provides nutrition education to families eligible for SNAP benefits, starting in October, due to budget cuts.

The CHSC grant is from the state, but 35 percent of the state budget is funded by the federal government, which raises questions about what Kingston can offer.

“Our Department of Health and Wellness is largely grants-funded, and that’s tough, because grants like Creating Healthy Schools and Communities, there’s a lot of uncertainty around them,” Kessler said.

According to Kessler, people may not even know how grant funding impacts them. One couple interviewed for the series was Emily and Jason Daniels, wellness committee members at JFK Elementary School in Kingston. Every year, they host an event called Spinach Fest. Partnered with nonprofit Land to Learn, this event brings fresh produce to school lunches and encourages children to eat healthy food. But this is funded by grants.

“I wanted people to be able to make that connection that all these things that make Kingston so vibrant, a lot of that is from grant funding, and so if that goes away, we won’t have that,” Kessler said. “We also won’t have access to making sure that all of this is equitable, that it’s not something that’s going to be behind a paywall because we can’t offer it for free.”

Kessler said they received a 350 percent increase in engagement after posting the series, with more likes, shares, and comments. To her, this confirmed that people “loved seeing their neighbors.”

“I can tell you the number of people who will receive SNAP, but at the end of the day, people are most deeply impacted by stories,” Kessler said. “The response from these stories showed me that people are really interested in this, they want to celebrate, they want to hear these good things.”

In the future, Kessler would like to do an in-person exhibit with these photographs and stories, to continue sharing these stories in unique ways, and to include more people in the project. But these plans are not finalized.

More information is available on the Live Well Kingston website and their contact page.