Harvesters - The Community Food Network

People know Ilka as “the grandma of the world” because she loves everybody as though they were her own grandchildren.

“The women of my family taught me that community is everything,” she said. “I am sure that they would be proud of me because I have carried on the tradition of loving people through food.”

Ilka always invites neighbors to join in family meals. “It lets them know that they're not forgotten about, that somebody is thinking about them, and that somebody really cares about them,” she said.

This year, Ilka visited Topeka’s Open Arms Outreach Ministries pantry where her