KCA Corporation has branched out and became a management service company with the
states of Kentucky, Alabama and North Carolina’s licensing agencies under the Randolph
Sheppard Act Program. KCA Corporation contracts with the state licensing agencies
to join with the visually impaired vendors to provide food services to military
installations.
The Randolph-Sheppard Act (RSA), 20 U.S.C. § 107 et seq.,
is a federal
law which mandates a priority to blind persons to operate vending facilities
on Federal property. The Act was first passed by the
United States Congress in 1936. The Act was amended and updated significantly
in 1974. James Gashel and Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, both leaders in the
National Federation
of the Blind, worked closely with Congressman
Jennings Randolph who was the original
author of the Blind Vending Stand Act of 1936. Congressman Randolph felt strongly
that the high degree of unemployment among working aged blind adults was reprehensible.
He believed joblessness among the blind must be reduced through a robust program
to assist blind people in the establishment and operation of cafeteria, concessions,
and vending businesses on federal, state, municipal and potentially private property.
He often remarked that if the private sector would not consider the capacity of
the blind to work alongside the sighted, blind people should be given opportunities
to maximize their vocational potential through the government sector, building their
own small business concerns.