The aroma of grilled meats and the sound of live music greeted guests as they entered the City Park Pavilion Sunday afternoon.

The appeal not only was made to the nose and ears of the visitors but also their hearts, as they gathered for the sixth-annual Flint Hills Living Wage Coalition Labor Fest.

The pavilion boomed with applause as several speakers took to the stage, each promoting increased wages and improved working conditions for the Manhattan community.

Each speaker stood opposite an American flag and a larger-than-life peanut accompanied by a sign that read, "Don't let families work for peanuts."

The festival also featured a variety of free foods, including hamburgers, bratwursts and fruits. An acoustic quintet played for the first half hour of the event. The performers played various string and percussion instruments to create a folk-style backdrop preluding the speakers.

The coalition, which organized the festival, works to raise awareness for families living in poverty throughout the community, according to the pamphlet, distributed at the event. The pamphlet said one in 10 households in Manhattan with children under the age of 18 live in poverty. The coalition's goal is to put an end to the vast amount of poverty in the Manhattan area by raising awareness to make a change.

Heidi Zeller, coordinator of Kansas Action Network's "Raise the Wage Campaign," was among one of the first to address the assembly. In her speech, she targeted the arguments often made by those who are against an increase in the Kansas minimum wage and spoke of reforms already taking place in the state.

"We will raise awareness and the wage," Zeller said. "We are excited to report that we already have petition activities under way in Wichita."

Currently, Kansas is one of only six states with a minimum wage below that of the federal minimum wage. Thirty states are reported to have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage. Research throughout the country shows that an increased minimum wage has proven highly beneficial, Zeller said.

"About 19,000 people in Kansas are not supported by the federal minimum wage but rather by the Kansas