st. paul, kansas, has one that will never shut its doors. >> who's your boss? e have six of them. we have a mayor and five council members. >> reporter: james voorhies and kelly voorhies run the only market in down but the city owns it, a unique arrangement to keep food available. you lived here when there wasn't a grocery store, what was that like? >> it was pretty rough, actually, you learned to pack coolers everywhere you we want because we're literally 17 miles to the next wal-mart, closest grocery store. >> reporter: 40 million live in food desserts nationwide. in rural areas, that's at least 10 miles from a grocery store. more than 20% are low income. the irony for many rural communities is that they are surrounded by farmland growing fresh food. there's just no access to it. >> you guys seen beans? >> reporter: tracy keagle's humanity house in lola kansas feeds 2,000 a month. rural pantries aren't as plentiful as in cities. without this resource what would