The Range | Friday, September 18, 2026

Marcy Bacon picks up a nutritional shake and a feeding tube at the Wichita Medical Loan Closet.

Now, it's mealtime for her teenage daughter.

Morgan, like many others with sensory issues, eats through a feeding tube.

Do you want the rest of it? Okay.

Must be hungry today.

Bacon uses a syringe to feed her daughter with equipment supplied by the loan closet.

This is what my insurance didn't pay for, along with the syringes and the formula.

And so all three of these things is what I've been able to get here each month to be able to feed her through her stomach.

A few years ago, Bacon lost her health insurance, but she was able to use the closet to get feeding supplies.

Bacon doesn't know what she would do without the closet.

A dozen bottles of formula can cost $70.

I probably wouldn't have been able to give my daughter the nutrition that she needed because of the affordability.

I am a one-person income and I would not be able to afford the health care and the cost of the formula, as well as just the regular cost of living.

Medical loan closets connect people with things like wheelchairs, feeding tubes, and hospital beds.

They are available for little or no cost.

Consumable items, like bacon uses, can be donated by clinics, but a majority comes from the public.

These closets can help people recover or maintain their independence as medical costs rise.

This stuff is stupidly expensive.

Medical equipment is awful, awful expensive.

That's Drew Brenner, director of the Wichita Medical Loan Closet.

If you have to make a decision whether you eat dinner or you are mobile in your home, most of the time you're going to choose dinner because food is life.

Loan closets are especially needed in rural areas.

That's where medical supply stores are few and far between.

Pamela Ford runs the Hope Center Medical Loan Closet in Pratt.

She says having the services in a more rural area saves people the trip to Wichita for equipment.

Marcy Bacon picks up a nutritional shake and a feeding tube at the Wichita Medical Loan Closet.

Now, it's mealtime for her teenage daughter.

Morgan, like many others with sensory issues, eats through a feeding tube.

Do you want the rest of it? Okay.

Must be hungry today.

Bacon uses a syringe to feed her daughter with equipment supplied by the loan closet.

This is what my insurance didn't pay for, along with the syringes and the formula.

And so all three of these things is what I've been able to get here each month to be able to feed her through her stomach.

A few years ago, Bacon lost her health insurance, but she was able to use the closet to get feeding supplies.

Bacon doesn't know what she would do without the closet.

A dozen bottles of formula can cost $70.

I probably wouldn't have been able to give my daughter the nutrition that she needed because of the affordability.

I am a one-person income and I would not be able to afford the health care and the cost of the formula, as well as just the regular cost of living.

Medical loan closets connect people with things like wheelchairs, feeding tubes, and hospital beds.

They are available for little or no cost.

Consumable items, like bacon uses, can be donated by clinics, but a majority comes from the public.

These closets can help people recover or maintain their independence as medical costs rise.

This stuff is stupidly expensive.

Medical equipment is awful, awful expensive.

That's Drew Brenner, director of the Wichita Medical Loan Closet.

If you have to make a decision whether you eat dinner or you are mobile in your home, most of the time you're going to choose dinner because food is life.

Loan closets are especially needed in rural areas.

That's where medical supply stores are few and far between.

Pamela Ford runs the Hope Center Medical Loan Closet in Pratt.

She says having the services in a more rural area saves people the trip to Wichita for equipment.