Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - 1:25pm
by
Meredith Storton
Kansas
City, Kansas, like many urban areas in the United States, has its share of food
deserts – low-income neighborhoods devoid of fresh, healthy foods; it also has
its share of vacant land. Cultivate Kansas City, a local non-profit, is
changing the landscape and engaging the entire community with a healthy,
environmentally-sustainable venture: urban farming.
Founded
in 2005, Cultivate Kansas City
promotes urban farming as a way to build a healthy local food system. Along the
way they have become advocates, educators, and activists supporting the
production of organic, nutritious produce on the ground and in the policy
space. One population that Cultivate is introducing to urban farming is the
Kansas City refugee community. Responding to a demand for more community garden
space for low-income refugee families, Cultivate partnered with Catholic
Charities of Northeast Kansas and three refugee organizations to begin the
Juniper Gardens Training Farm and the New Roots for Refugees
program. Since the program began in 2010, two gardens have been established:
the Bhutanese Community Garden and the Somali Bantu Foundation garden. A third
will be established in 2014.
For
each of these gardens, Cultivate provides the gardeners with training, basic
seeds, and supplies. The gardeners receive their training at the Juniper
Gardens Training Farm, an eight-acre plot of land adjacent to a public housing
site where many of the refugee families live, making the location both
accessible and convenient. Once these gardens are fully developed, they will
help up to 600 individuals living in poverty grow food for themselves and for
sale at farmer’s markets. Further, these gardens allow refugees from Bhutan,
Somalia, Burma, and elsewhere to grow vegetables from their home countries,
like blue Burmese pumpkins, African corn, bitter melon, Hmong red cucumber, and
more.
RSF
Social Finance was able
to provide Cultivate Kansas City with a $3,000 grant through the Seed Fund to
support their work establishing the second of these gardens for the Somali
Bantu community. The Somali Bantu live in northeastern Kansas City where one
grocery store serves a six-mile radius and one-third of the families earn less
than $10,000 annually (ISED Solutions, Apr. 2010). In Somalia, the main
occupation for Bantu people is farming, so urban farming seems to be an ideal
way to help them assimilate into their new home while providing them with
access to fresh, healthy produce.
The
nearly one-acre plot of land that will be used for this garden was donated by
the Somali Bantu Foundation
of Kansas, an
organization dedicated to the resettlement and integration of Somali Bantu
refugees. Upon first glance, the land did not appear ideal for farming; it was
heavily sloped and filled with weeds and construction debris. Urban farmers
make do with what’s available, though, and Cultivate Kansas City and Somali
Bantu Foundation volunteers cleared the land, formed terraces, composted the
soil, and planted cover crops. As a result of their efforts, a little over a
half-acre is now ready for planting.
Juniper
Gardens Training Farm
Before
the growing season begins, Cultivate Kansas City will help install two cisterns
for the garden which will help them plan for water costs ahead of time (instead
of connecting to the city water system directly). The plan is to plant the
first vegetables in the spring, and the first harvest will be ready for
enjoyment and sale at local farmers markets in the summer. To get their new
gardeners ready, Cultivate Kansas City will offer workshops covering basic
gardening, soil management, and planting for the region and season. They will
also work with the gardeners to order seeds and supplies. The garden’s benefits
will reach beyond the gardeners to their neighbors and families who will have
access to fresh, healthy, culturally-appropriate, and affordable produce.
Cultivate
Kansas City is doing some ground-breaking work –they’ve helped start more than
40 farms and have provided thousands of hours of technical assistance to
hundreds each year. But there’s still more to be done. As their Executive
Director Katherine Kelly said, “there is food to be grown and money to be made
and empty lots to be turned into assets rather than blight!” Cultivate Kansas
City wants to grow a movement of people who know that they can reclaim the food
system and their communities, and who know there is joy and power in the
process. It seems they are off to a great start.
