2023 Accomplishments and What to Look Forward To
Tom Buller, Executive Director - It has been a busy year for the Kansas Rural Center, marked by amazing new opportunities and growth. We have added two staff members over the past year, Teresa Kelly and Dakota Welch, who have helped us connect with many new people and groups across the state. This year we have been able to join into two new, multi-year, regional partnerships, the Heartland Environmental Justice Center and the Heartland Regional Food Business Center which will continue for years to come. These programs help us reach out to farmers and communities across the state and provide resources to address the issues they are facing. We are poised to help many new and beginning farmers over the coming years as we start our Farm Beginnings work this coming January. We also continue our work to help bring farmers and food buyers together in Central Kansas as we wrapped up year one of our project to build the Central Kansas Food Corridor along Interstate 135. What was supposed to be the 2023 Farm Bill kept us engaged with farmers and politicians as we push for a sustainable vision for American agriculture. Now maybe it will be the 2024 Farm Bill, we shall see… We had a very successful conference in Topeka this year, thanks to all who attended and shared their knowledge with each other. While we are working hard to do great things in the state of Kansas, we couldn’t have any impact without your support. Thanks for helping us work for the health of the land and its people!
Thanks,
Tom
Charlotte French-Allen, Communication and Events Coordinator - This year has been a grand experiment in flexing our voice at Kansas Rural Center. From our Rural Cinema initiatives and tabling, to our KRC stickers and social media promotions, we have been collectively working to get in front of our public. It hurts my heart when people ask if we are “new,” and that is something that I am passionate about fixing for KRC. A few projects that I am particularly proud of this year are our eight Farm to School Videos to guide those exploring their options, our Soil Health podcast series completed in partnership with the Prairie Ramblings podcast allowed us to uplift another Kansas media source while highlighting the work of four Kansas farmers who care deeply for our soils, the Rural Cinema video showings that were coordinated in partnership with Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation allowed us to support community interest in food sovereignty, the promotion of the Common Ground film has given us an opportunity to be seen as a resource to those new to the idea of regenerative practices and soil health, and of course, this year’s conference where all of these ideas converged to offer education and collaboration to the food and farm curious from across the State. Before joining the KRC team, it was the conference that drew me in and let me know, “These are where my people are.” This feeling weighs heavily on me from year to year, and I consider injecting that feeling across the media created on behalf of KRC. I hope you, our followers, feel that sense of belonging here with those interested in food sovereignty, community strength, and sustainable practices.
Next year, we are excited to continue our work in Rural Cinema and to broaden the reach of our screenings to include Prairie Hollow Production’s Hot Times in the Heartland, Kiss the Ground’s Farmer’s Cut of Common Ground, and We Live Here, which features Courtney and Denise Skeeba. Please feel free to contact us with documentaries that you feel would be a good fit for communities in Kansas.
With over 1,400 subscribers, we will form a plan to continue the podcast. The release dates are currently “evergreen” but will have a more steady schedule. I am looking forward to providing outreach support with our newest initiatives: Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center, Heartland Regional Food Business Center, Beginning Farmer Training, and the Central Kansas Food Hub.
Please read on for more information about these projects, as highlighted by my coworkers, and contact me if you are interested in helping with outreach.
Ryan Goertzen-Regier, Program and Administrative Manager - Since I became aware of the Kansas Rural Center years ago, I’ve always appreciated he core values that the organization and its founders hold dear. Our guiding principles have always been that agriculture must be environmentally and ecologically sound, and provide for the self-renewal of our natural resources of soil and water – and people on the land. These excellent goals, along with creating and stewarding food and farm businesses that are economically viable and socially just make up the core of our work, and of the initiatives I’m currently working on.
Part of my job is to help build the local and regional food system here in Central Kansas. Back in 2022 KRC was granted a Local Food Promotion Program grant award to explore the creation of a new food hub entity or increased support of an existing entity to resource farmers and local food purchasers in the region. Food hubs are a collaborative strategy that I’ve been excited about for a long time, and I’m thrilled to be able to work on a project to hopefully bring famers together in this way. The basic idea is that a food hub encompasses a group of farmers who aggregate, market, and distribute their products together to mid-tier wholesale purchasers, such as grocery stores, restaurants, school and institutional cafeterias, and more. These producers work together to fill orders that a single one of them couldn’t do alone and simplify the selling process for farmers (sell to the food hub instead of 20 restaurants) and buying process for purchasers (buy from a food hub to fill an order, rather than contract with 20 farmers selling different products). Though a food hub is certainly not a perfect solution for every farmer or situation, I hope that we can continue to find creative and collaborative ways to enhance business for farmers and local food access across the region.
I’m also currently working on launching KRC’s first “Farm Beginnings” class in the middle of January 2024. Farm Beginnings is a short-form whole farm business planning course that will run for eight weeks starting the week of January 15. Last year we joined the Farm Beginnings Collaborative, a nationwide group of like-minded organizations who share best practices and teaching experience around beginning farmer training that is farmer-led, community based, and focused on sustainable agriculture. You can find out more information and register for the upcoming course on page 9 of this issue of Rural Papers. We know how dire the need is for more beginning farmers and ranchers in Kansas, and I’m excited that KRC will be contributing to ensuring new farmers’ success through Farm Beginnings!
Jackie Keller, Program Coordinator - The year started off with a big bang with award of a Rural Cinema grant from Working Films to help address Environmental Justice issues with Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (PBPN) as partner in 2023. With the added tool of film screenings, authentic relationships were further developed with PBPN, especially with Mikayla Kerron, who took the ‘bull by the horns,’ as community leader on this project. Four trainings on the eight elements were helpful for community engagement, along with guidance from Working Films staff and input from the Rural Cinema Cohort during check-in meetings. In addition, I connected with Native Chef Jason Champagne during several events he catered including Gathering Of Native Americans, Indigenous People’s Day at K-State and KU, and the Tribal Health Summit in Topeka, organized by KS Alliance for Tribal Community Health (KATCH), where KRC provided healthy breakfast and snack items I procured from local vendors. During the Summit, I was a panelist in the Food Sovereignty breakout and was one of three judges for the health themed chalk drawing contest. Involvement with KATCH has fostered existing and new relationships.
Genuine bonds have also blossomed with the Central Topeka Grocery Oasis (CTGO) board. I’ve attended two in-person monthly meetings as a new member, and after one Shawnee County Farm and Food Advisory Council meeting, also as a new member, I now serve on the Member Recruitment Subcommittee. I am on the Rural Grocery Initiative (RGI) Advisory Board and have provided input to a consultant who is helping RGI with their Strategic Plan. The KRC conference provided further engagement with grocery endeavors. Adetola Lamidi, a K-State graduate student in Ag. Economics, co-presented with Regena Lance, owner of the Mildred Store, on the Feasibility Study for a Group Purchasing Cooperative for rural grocers in Southeast KS. The CTGO Board President, Marge Ahrens, also presented in the “Independent Grocery Stories” breakout. Other conference sessions I coordinated were the Hemp Tour and the Mental Health Panel. I led the two-part Conservation Learning Circle for Women Landowners and obtained post-screening discussants for the Film Track. Talk has begun about a possible future film screening in Allen Co. at the Mildred Store, and/or in Humboldt on the square.
Other accomplishments include staying abreast to EJ TCTAC (Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center), which will provide training and other assistance to build capacity for navigating federal grant applications systems, writing strong grant proposals, and effectively managing grant funding. Outreach to communities has begun. Also, I have been lightly a part of planning for Common Ground screenings in Lawrence and Overland Park. Conversations about future screenings in Manhattan, Salina and Wichita have ensued. Lastly, I am one of the co-planners for the KHF IVE cohort Learning Circle on anti-racism which will be Jan. 18 where three KRC staff are invited to attend.
Teresa Kelly, Food Value Chain Coordinator - I love this job. My part of the journey developing a Food Corridor stretching 90 miles and covering 12 counties has been fun and challenging. Fun outweighing the challenges.
Here are some of the highlights along the way, in no particular order. I met in person our partners at Common Ground and Kansas Wesleyan, and St John’s and toured their facilities. It is so helpful to walk in the path with those you are working with. I participated in the Farm to School strategic planning meeting, the Local Food Roundtable, toured the Potawatomie Band industrial hemp facility prior to our conference; enjoyed a FAM tour of Salina’s local food scene including producers and wholesale buyers, toured the Kansas Land Institute, met with local food producers and buyers in Wichita, facilitated a wholesale sales session and supported our webinar series. So many new faces and places that are part of a great map-literally hanging on my wall in my office- starting to take shape as I begin to connect the dots shaping a vibrant food corridor.
I thrive on discovery and building community. This year has been a lot of both. It is exciting to look forward to the possibilities ahead in 2024.
Dakota Welch, Farm Business Navogator - Since coming on board with KRC in August, I’ve been spending the last few months getting a feel for the newly created role of a ‘farm business navigator’ and looking for ways to be the most effective in this position. Luckily for me, I was able to hit the ground running in this new work, as I had set out to serve farmers in much of the same capacity when I left my lending career in April to work as an independent consultant for farms seeking access to land and capital. In the first several weeks of joining KRC, I spent time working to identify all of the various areas that a farm business may need direction, and I ultimately identified these areas to be the following: business planning, mentorship and technical support, access to capital, access to land, and robust marketing opportunities.
In recognizing that these focus points likely don’t address all the needs of a farm business, I felt that this encompasses much of what it takes to build a thriving enterprise. After identifying these areas, the work I’ve been doing up to this point has largely been engaging with farm businesses as well as identifying opportunities in each of these categories of support. What I’ve found is that no two farms are the same when it comes to their needs and desires, and this often wrang true in my former career as a lender. In looking at some of the early ‘wins’, I’ve been able to direct one farm business to our Farm Beginnings program; in another instance, I’ve served a farmer in helping them to identify a grant opportunity for value added production; and in a more recent case, I’m working with an individual to explore a cooperative operation model as a creative approach to land access. In all of this, probably the most important use of my time has simply been outreach to both farmers and other service providers, as these opportunities to serve individuals can’t happen without their awareness of what we do. I’ll close by saying thank you to all that continue to support the Kansas Rural Center in our work. We couldn’t make any of this possible without you.