On this episode of Banking on KC, Brien Darby, Executive Director of Cultivate KC, joins host Kelly Scanlon to share how the nonprofit is cultivating a thriving local food system by supporting urban farmers, improving food access, and fostering community engagement that connects people to where their food comes from.
Tune in to discover:
Country Club Bank – Member FDIC
Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Brien Darby, the executive Director of Cultivate KC. Welcome, Brien
Brien Darby: Thank you.
Kelly Scanlon: Let's talk about the role that Cultivate KC plays in strengthening Kansas City's local food system. What essentially do you do?
Brien Darby: So we've operated for about 20 years now on the theory that if we wanna increase the local food supply, we need to make sure that our urban farmers have the resources that they need. So a lot of our work is geared towards what will make an urban farm more successful. And some of those things are physical resources like land and access to water or tools or supplies that may not be available locally.
And then some of the less tangible resources are the education and the technical support. And so that's an area where we specialize as well.
Kelly Scanlon: And that education is a growing part of your program. First, let's talk about the food growing sites that you have yourself. Where are they located?
Brien Darby: We really just operate one main site right now, and the majority of that land is leased out to farmers in training, and so that is called the Juniper Gardens Training Farm.
We are near downtown Kansas City, Kansas, and sort of sandwiched between Strawberry Hill and the Fairfax Industrial District in northeast K.C.
Kelly Scanlon: Okay, so you had a second one at one point. It was in the Westport Commons. Correct. So you had to leave that one, and there was some development going on there, so you had to relocate.
And so how are you approaching site selection for that new location?
Brien Darby: So our organization is 20 years old. For the first 12 to 13 years. Our front door was a farm in Kansas City, Kansas. It is now the home of another nonprofit called the KC Farm School. And that land prior to us having, it had been farmed for about 10 years by one of our founders.
So it has a lot of rich history. People in this area who know about local food know about that site as a place where you can go to get education and get connected with local food. And so I mention all of that to say that. When we left that site, it was done with a lot of intention and so coming to Midtown had several qualities that were really attractive to us.
One was the proximity to many of the urban farmers that we work with all along the Ivanhoe corridor. There are urban farmers who've been growing in thriving for years, and we continue to support in a variety of ways. But then I think what was most attractive about Midtown. And anyone who lives here or visits here or works here knows this, but it's a very diverse area.
Socioeconomically, the neighborhoods are representatively very different and culturally, and then it's one of our most connected parts of town as well. So it made sense to have it in a location where a. We could support the people who are core to our central mission, but then also be able to do that public education with a, a wide audience.
So we are looking for all of those qualities as we look locate. Yes. And then I also think a big lesson for us over our history, and it's become very apparent lately, is that the strength of partnerships is really important to our success. And so as we look for that relocation, we're looking for not only partners on land access, but also programming.
Kelly Scanlon: Let's step back for just a minute. It, it occurs to me, maybe I should ask you to define urban farmer. Is that somebody that's got lots of acreage somewhere in the city, or could they just have several tomato pots on their back porch?
Brien Darby: I think urban farming, as far as the definition goes, is growing. That's happening in an urban area.
I think it's maybe helpful, but hopefully not harmful to make a further distinction between farmer and gardener. And most people would say that an urban gardener is somebody who's growing food primarily for their own consumption, and then someone who's into urban farming is someone who is looking to derive some income from their growing.
It's not a hard and fast definition, but that's generally the folks that we're working with are the ones who are entrepreneurs who are running their own farm businesses in urban spaces. Okay.
Kelly Scanlon: You talk about your programming, there's one in particular at the Juniper Gardens that you mentioned just a few minutes ago.
That has really become a standout. A lot of people will recognize it, and that's the New Roots program. Talk with us about that, and in particular, how it helps participants move from training to running their own farms. And then, I mean, that's been operating for a while now, so what kind of long-term impact are you seeing?
Brien Darby: Absolutely you, you're correct. We are in our 17th season. We're wrapping up our 17th season right now. That program is a four year land-based farm training program, but I think the way that we've seen the most success for our participants is that they have skin in the game from year one. And when I say that, I mean that.
Throughout the four years that they're with us, we're teaching them how to sell into a variety of different market channels, and that starts in year one. And so the best ways that we have found to help sell and market produce for the folks in our program are direct to consumer, which is the fancy word for going to farmer's markets and then whole.
Sale, so getting food into institutional partners or restaurants. And then the third one is where we actually see the bulk of the income for our participants, but it also has the highest labor involved for our staff, and that's organizing a community supported agriculture program or food box program. So our customers give us a set amount of money at the beginning of the year, and then for 24 weeks throughout the season, they are guaranteed to get a share of the produce that's grown throughout the year.
Kelly Scanlon: And so do they come and pick that up? Is it delivered to them? How does that work?
Brien Darby: It's pickup, but we do have five sites around the metro where someone can elect to pick up their share each week. Who
Kelly Scanlon: are these urban farmers? See an opportunity to use your services? Do you have a profile? We do not. So they're that diverse?
Brien Darby: It is, yeah. You mentioned the new Roots program. We do just call it New Roots now, although for many years it was known as New Roots for Refugees. And the intent when the program was started was to serve the refugee audience who was getting relocated to Kansas City, Kansas. And many of them came to the country with agricultural backgrounds.
So it was a workforce development program designed specifically for them. But in the. Since 17 years ago, we've seen waves of immigrant populations as well and other new Americans who may not have that refugee status coming to our country who also have an agricultural background. Um, so we see a lot of that throughout the metro, whether they're interacting with our new roots program or not.
And then we see a lot of US born citizens who are very interested in. Having some say in what has grown for their family and their community and, and have a love and a passion for growing food.
Kelly Scanlon: So really it's open to anyone who has an interest in learning more about agriculture and raising their own foods.
You mentioned that you have collaborations that you're depending more and more on them, not just for land access, but for educational programming. You have thousands of volunteer hours and, um, again, that major community engagement. Tell us a little bit about the volunteer programs, what they do, and then beyond the numbers, tell us some stories about the outcomes that captures the difference that you're making in people's lives.
Brien Darby: As far as what volunteer opportunities exist.
We can try to get someone plugged in with any of our programming or a partner program, so some examples of that if you. Want to come out to our Juniper Gardens training farm. We have plenty of opportunities to come out and work on the farm, work in our staff plots. Occasionally we can pair people up and work in some of the farmer's individual plots and assist them for the day.
That's sort of a, a light touch volunteering. We have more long-term where you might become close to one of the farm families and the new roots program. Go to market with them or come out and practice English while weeding the plot with them. Yeah, those sorts of opportunities With our food access programming, we have a mobile grocer that serves the Wyandotte County community, and we have opportunities for volunteerism through that program as well.
And then we have one-offs for some of our fun public education events that we love to get people engaged in. As far as impact, when I see school groups or corporate groups come out to one of the farm sites that we're working at for the day. I see particularly with the kids. I see them, their faces light up when they're touching produce.
Adults generally have touched produce by that point, but maybe they haven't thought about some of the larger systems that are at play. Both ecological and social systems that are at play when we're working and engaging in, in. These urban farm spaces.
Kelly Scanlon: Another program that you have is yes, it takes money to farm, and so you are trying to connect some of the urban farmers with the capital that they need.
Talk to us about that program.
Brien Darby: This is something that we've done in stages over the last 12 to 13 years, and it started with us doing our own grant making so we could give out these get growing mini grants for $3,500. It's not much, but it helps a farmer buy a tool or fix a water line or do something that's gonna make their business more sustainable.
And by doing that, you are able to grow more food for our community. And then in our last round of strategic planning, we certainly identified that access to capital was one of the greatest barriers that our farmers were facing in this community. And. It's not unique to our community throughout the country.
This is a problem that farmers face. And so we thought about what are the ways that we could have influence on access to capital? And so we looked at what existed. So there were our mini grant program. There were local funds, there were state funds, state Department of Agriculture funds that were available.
And so we. Are able to help farmers access those grants by providing technical assistance for grant writing. Um, but then once somebody qualifies for one of those programs, particularly if it's state, federal, or local money, it's gonna be reimbursable. And so we are piloting a bridge loan program with a local CDFI called Alt Cap, and they will be able to provide that funding upfront, the capital upfront, so that the farmer can participate in one of those programs.
Kelly Scanlon: So you really have a. 360 approach. You educate the farmers on, on the growing techniques, planting, growing, I suspect, all the way through getting the funding and then taking it to market. Yes. So let's talk about some of those agricultural programs. What are some of the practices that are not just popular, but over years of studying agriculture and so forth that are beneficial for you to teach?
Brien Darby: I'd say the, the number one trend we've seen over the last. Five to 10 years is season extension, so that's a pretty big bucket. But anything that is going to protect your crops from the, when we think season extension, we're thinking the extremes on the the beginning of the year and the end of the year, the colder season.
But those same strategies can be used in the really hot part of the year to help protect plants as well. So. If you've seen more high tunnels low tunnels, caterpillar tunnels, so covered structures on farmland and the urban space and peri-urban space. That's what I'm talking about. Okay.
Kelly Scanlon: That's really important now because the shifting climate patterns are causing, it's kind of messing up the growing seasons and, you know, you can't grow annuals all year long, but, but we're still getting, um, longer growing seasons and.
That's good in some ways, but at the same time, what are some of the things that you have to watch out for with the longer growing seasons?
Brien Darby: I'll start with the, the heat. That's, that's kind of where we might, where our mind is right now. We're still in that phase of the year. Yes. And I think, um, there's, there's two facets to that.
We wanna make sure that anyone laboring on a farm is protected. So starting earlier in the day. Taking adequate breaks, having access to water, having access to cooling, whether that's shade or accessory cooling. Those are things that we can provide on our training farm, but we also need to teach that and have that ingrained in folks who are maybe just learning to farm, that they take care of themselves, and then taking care of the plants is a little bit different.
This is selecting varieties that are better adapted for heat and drought, and then knowing how to take advantage of that longer season so that you're growing the right things in that part of the year. One of the real, that's an upside, getting more, more days of non frosts. But then the downside is that our pest populations aren't seeing the declines that we used to with the colder weather.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah, that's very true. All right, so you're educating the urban farmers, but it sounds like you also need to make the public aware of what you're doing and how they can access the food that's grown because the farmers have to have a customer. So talk to us about your educational efforts there.
Brien Darby: You're absolutely right.
Creating strong markets is part of farmer support, and so sometimes when we're out doing our public education, it's really geared towards fun activities to highlight local food. It might look a little goofy. It might be bringing cows into Midtown to eat the end of the crop residue at the end of the season, but that's our opportunity to invite families and groups who maybe don't already feel that connection to local food to take away a very positive.
Message about local food. Other ways that we're able to do that, we will have events again geared towards the general public, but highlighting the local farmers in our community. We have a great, um, we, we just did it in June this year, and we'll do it again next June, but it's a great event called the Urban Grown Tour.
It's sort of like an open house for farms who are willing to participate and on one weekend in June, folks can go around and visit all these farms. Learn a bit more about their operation and then hopefully make connections and then seek them out either through their CSA program or at farmer's markets.
Kelly Scanlon: As you look to the future, what is your vision for Cultivate KC in Kansas City? Not just in terms of food access, but really that larger picture of shaping healthier, more resilient communities.
Brien Darby: Okay. I'm gonna take us on a bit of a walk for this one, if that's okay? Yes. Okay. So I think I'll start with what I feel has been what legacy we've helped create over the last 20 years.
Kansas City, by its definition, is an urban area. We have the size and geography population to, to prove that. And yet people in Kansas City are more connected to local food than many of our peer cities. Oh really? And cities larger than ours.
Kelly Scanlon: Why is that?
Brien Darby: I really think that that is some of the work that Cultivate KC has done over the last few years.
And, um, we have this awareness, and I think it comes from consumers ha knowing about local food and having seen farms be highlighted. So frequently, many of our newsrooms in Kansas City have Ag specialties and those ag reporters will report on urban food, and you just don't see that in other areas. So I think that is the legacy that we're trying to protect.
And so at Cultivate KC in the future, we will continue to support that growth As our city grows, we wanna make sure that we don't lose that trend. Yeah. So I think that's really central to us now for food access for many years, decades. Cultivate, KC and others have approached increasing local food access, particularly for low income populations by leveraging existing federal food assistance programs.
I'm concerned that we're going into an era where that is not the, the wise bed. We need to diversify away from that. And so we do a lot of advocacy at Cultivate KC as well. And so we have been pushing for many years with, with many of our colleagues around the country to break out of that pattern and find different ways of getting healthy local food to low income populations.
So I mentioned earlier we have the.mobile grocer program. Yes. That's low income grocery. It's not restricted to any individual, but we are intentional about where it, where it's delivered and where people are able to shop. And then another program that I'll mention it was a very popular COVID era stimulus program, LFPA, local food Procurement Agreements.
And that allowed food banks in our area to purchase directly from local farmers. We saw that money go away recently, but it has. Full bipartisan support to have it come back, should if and when we get our next farm bill. So a lot of our work is going to be looking for those opportunities to connect our lawmakers with local food and those stories of impact about how local food for food assistance is so important.
And then lastly, and this one's very wonky. I think that cultivate will continue to elevate the profession of the urban farmer.
Kelly Scanlon: In what way?
Brien Darby: So when I started my career 15, 20 years ago, urban farmers were looked down upon as not legitimate farmers.
Kelly Scanlon: Ah, by the larger farm community? Correct.
Brien Darby: Okay. And I feel that when I look at Kansas City now, that's not the case.
I think people understand. What farming is or urban farming and why it's important. And so I think there's some continued PR work to be done about legitimizing this as a profession. But then the harder work is making sure that our municipalities understand the zoning that is required.
Kelly Scanlon: What kind of strides are you making with the municipalities?
Brien Darby: So Kansas City, Missouri is the only of our municipalities in the metro area that has an urban ag ordinance, which is that's a win on its own. There are, as I mentioned, our peer cities earlier. Many of them don't have that. However, ours was written 14 years ago, so it's outdated. So we've been working to update that and some of the things that we're addressing are.
Onsite sales of produce.
Kelly Scanlon: Okay. So beyond the growing of it, okay. Mm-hmm. The business of it.
Brien Darby: Mm-hmm. But then also what counts as an accessory use. So the business model of this type of entrepreneur is all about diversification. So you can grow your produce and sell it, that's one thing. But there are other ways to drive income, and we wanna make sure that this type of entrepreneur isn't being prevented.
From diversifying their business in a way that's gonna make it more successful.
Kelly Scanlon: There are a lot of home-based businesses that rely on an, an office in the home, and many cities allow that. But if you have plants growing in your yard, you know, crops growing in your yard, and people coming in and out, that.
Probably requires a little bit more crafting, I guess, of the ordinance. It does, yeah. Yeah.
Brien Darby: More attention. Um, farmers want to be able to extend their sales season by doing what we call value add, taking something that was grown and preserving it in a way that they can sell it later that needs some discussion.
Yeah, so,
Kelly Scanlon: so jelly jars of jelly and or canned vegetables and things like that. Yeah.
Brien Darby: Farmers wanna capitalize on the popularity of urban farming and local food by having events on farm that they can sell tickets
Kelly Scanlon: to. So where are these urban farms mostly located? Now you have me curious, um, are they in suburban areas or are they on the outskirts?
I just think about the typical plot of a, of a yard in a suburban area, and it just doesn't seem big enough. So, yeah, so a lot of the farms
Brien Darby: we work with are on less than half an acre, particularly if they're in a. Statistically urban area. If we think about Kansas City, Missouri, there's a big concentration in the third and somewhat the fourth council district.
But really that third district, if I think about Wyandotte County, um, where the farms are located, is going to mirror where the parcel size gets larger. So sort of middle of the county and Wyandot County. And then as you head west, you're gonna see more of that urban farming.
Kelly Scanlon: You mentioned collaborations.
Talk to us about some of the organizations that you work with in any capacity really.
Brien Darby: But I can say that over the 20 year history of our organization, we would not have thrived or survived at all without partnerships. Um, some of our earliest ones were with Kansas State. They were very interested in urban ag when other land grant universities weren't there yet.
So they just get started. They provided some early research into. Farming systems that work for urban farmers that we could then help get the word out about. We mentioned Catholic Charities earlier. There would be no new roots if it weren't for the partnership between Catholic Charities, having the audience and the ex expertise to work with refugees and cultivate having the farming knowledge on our advocacy efforts.
We had worked for many years with Casey Healthy Kids, who recently closed their doors. We collaboratively formed the Greater Casey Food Policy Coalition with that organization.
Kelly Scanlon: What types of organizations are you looking to have conversations with?
Brien Darby: It seems like there's a big trend right now towards seeing the intersection of local food and health and, and it's always been there, but I think healthcare and local food is probably the, the smart money right now as we're looking for partnerships.
Kelly Scanlon: How did you get involved in this type of work?
Brien Darby: I have just always had a passion for growing. When I was young. My parents let me start a garden at home, and then throughout my educational career. I was on a high school campus and then a college campus as well that was very welcoming of, of students' ideas and so I was allowed to start some farming programs on campus, and then I started farming for a larger farm after school.
Professionally, I started my career. With a public garden in Denver. They as, as well, were very accommodating for my desire to start building some urban farm programs. But it wasn't until I got my master's degree in public health that I started to see that connection between food systems. Community health as well as helping define it the identity of an urban space.
Kelly Scanlon: So there's volunteer opportunities. If someone is interested in any of those things, what's the best way to reach you or to get more details about it.
Brien Darby: We have a great website. I'm really proud of our representation. So cultivate KC dot org is where you'll go. You'll find information about all of our programs.
All of our upcoming events, there's a tab for volunteer opportunities and then, um, we aren't taking CSA signups right now, but um, you are welcome to get on the wait list and, and sign up next year. There's also a tab on our website for farmer's markets, so you can go there and find the farmer's market nearest you.
Learn their hours and start visiting.
Kelly Scanlon: Alright, well thank you so much Brianne, for coming on the show today to talk to us, to add to that awareness. You're doing very important work here in the community and we're very happy to be able to host you today.
Brien Darby: Well, thank you for having us. We really appreciate it.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, regional leader for Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. Thank you to Brien Darby of Cultivate KC for being our guest. On this episode of Banking on KC Cultivate. KC is helping grow Kansas City's local food system by supporting urban farmers with land training and tools to build sustainable businesses.
From the Juniper Gardens Training Farm to the New Roots program, Brien and her team are giving farmers the chance to gain experience and bring fresh, healthy food to neighborhoods across our city. At Country Club Bank, we believe strong communities grow from the ground up. Just like the farms cultivate KC supports by helping entrepreneurs access capital and strengthen local economies.
We're proud to play a part in keeping Kansas City thriving. Thanks for tuning in. This week we're Banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, a division of FNBO, member FDIC.