At the beginning of December, I completed one year on the job here at the Kansas Rural Center. As that personal milestone passed, and the end of the calendar year approaches I’ve taken a bit of time to reflect on the work of the organization. We’ve had a busy year, with mostly new staff settling into a well-established organization. We developed a new logo to mark this period of transition within the organization, featured in this newsletter. Without a doubt, the highlight for me was gathering in person once again at our Food and Farm Conference, this year at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina.

We were thrilled to be hosted by Kansas Wesleyan University, who is a new partner for KRC in the work of building sustainable food and farming systems in Kansas. There were so many wonderful speakers sharing about the great work going on in Kansas and providing insight and inspiration for ways to build a more sustainable future. Dr. Daniel Wildcat and Stephen Lerner kicked off the conversation with an inspiring discussion of how indigenous wisdom and changing our mindset is key in our struggle live with a changing climate. We were able to share about work going on in regenerative agriculture, agrivoltaics, small livestock production, farmer- veteran efforts, diversity, equity, inclusion in agriculture and many other topics. We brought together a learning circle of women landowners and hosted discussions for beginningfarmers. It was a great conference, and we appreciate everyone who was able to make it.

While our November conference is still top of mind for me, we’ve had a lot of other highlights in 2022. It has been a solid year of accomplishments. We hosted an online Beginning Farmer Conference in March. We worked at the KansasLegislature this year, along with our partners in the Kansas Food and Farm Coalition to support cutting the state sales tax on food and we’ve started to spark discussion about the 2023 Farm Bill in our policy work at the national level. We’ve providedpresentations and workshops on grants for farmers, farm transition, land access, and farm business management. We’ve connected withcommunities across the state to help support good work going on and amplify the successes across the state.

This issue of the Rural Papers includes reflections on work we have accomplished so far, but also a preview of some of the exciting things that are coming in 2023 and beyond. Next year when we will roll out the first introductory sessions of our Farm Beginnings programming in January.

We also look forward to next year as we begin a new project we call Building the Central Kansas Food Corridor. We are working with partners at Common Ground Producers and Growers, St. John’s Baptist Church of Salina and Kansas Wesleyan University to connect farmer in Central Kansas to local market opportunities, while expanding the model of Common Ground Producers and Growers to expand access to locally produced food even in areas with low food access. We’re excited about what we’ve done this year, but even more enthused about what’s next.