CLAFLIN – Juicy burgers and crispy fries are still available on the menu at Squeegy’s Bar & Grill in Claflin, but along with all the things you’d expect to find on the menu of the local grill, you’ll also find fresh salads, seasonal fruits, and grilled chicken thanks to the work owner Ciji Folk has done to add healthy, fresh, and tasty new options to her menu.
Squeegy’s Bar & Grill recently moved from Main Street in Claflin to a new location on Front Street (K-4). With the new location came a revised menu and an opportunity with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant initiative. Working with Karla Crissman from the Clara Barton Hospital Health for Life Coalition, Ciji made several new additions to the menu, and rearranged the menu so those additions were easy for her diners to find. Ciji Folk said she was excited to learn from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas that her grant application had been accepted and approved.
“Our new location is great,” said Folk. “It was hard work, and I have to thank family, friends, and the Claflin community for their hard work and support. The last occupant of the building was not a restaurant, so we had to create our new kitchen from scratch, including installing a vent hood and grill, a pizza oven and a walk-in refrigerator. Three-phase electrical wiring was required for the oven and the cooler, and that is expensive.”
Folk used the Pathways grant money to install the vent hood, cooling unit, and the three-phase wiring.
“Every business owner faces economic challenges,” said Health for Life Coalition member Karla Crissman. “Many times those challenges are magnified in rural areas where resources can be thin on the ground. Blue Cross Blue Shield recognizes those challenges, and the Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant initiative was designed not only to promote healthy choices, but to provide some funding to make healthy changes possible and sustainable. The Health for Life Coalition at Clara Barton Hospital is excited to help the Claflin community have access to a local restaurant.”
Pathways to a Healthy Kansas is the largest community grant program ever funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. The Pathways program provides community coalitions with the tools and resources needed to remove barriers and engage their communities in ways that enable healthy eating and tobacco-free, active living to become a way of life.