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