Cultivate KC is excited to announce the most recent recipients of the Get Farming Mini Grant program!
Each year, Cultivate KC offers mini grants to support urban farmers in the Kansas City area to grow their business, expand production, and feed their communities. Since 2011, Get Farming Mini Grants have supported 136 farm and garden projects totaling $257,886 with generous funding from the Health Forward Foundation. This year, we are grateful to expand impact with new funding from Hall Family Foundation and Cargill, Inc. Thanks to these new funders, we were able to increase the award cap from $3,000 to $3,500 to account for inflation, fund more awards, and likely offer a second round of awards this summer.
Congratulations to the following grant recipients:
Young Family Farm– Cooler installation
Young Family Farm will complete the build out of a walk-in cooler in their farm shed. An adequate refrigeration system is critical infrastructure to preserve their produce after harvest and for market days, will facilitate more efficient food production and the promotion of business sustainability, and allow the Young Family to share more of their bounty with the community and families in need.
Cung Par Family Farm – Tool storage shed
Biak Par is a graduate of the New Roots for Refugees program and last year her family moved into a new house where they have cultivated the backyard as a farm. They will buy a tool shed and install a foundation to store tools and supplies that are critical to growing food for their community. The shed will keep tools safe from wind, rain, and potential theft.
Fresh Green Farm – Cooler installation
Ca Saw graduated from the New Roots for Refugees program last season and has already been growing his business in his large backyard and on land at a nearby church. This year he will build a cold storage room inside his existing garage to keep his produce fresh and marketable to his customers.
Congolese Family Farm – New farm water access
Gasaya Musekura graduated from the New Roots for Refugees program and was recently able to purchase an open lot nearby Juniper Gardens Training Farm in Kansas City, KS. Water access is the most important need for the farm and this grant will help pay for the installation of a water hydrant.
Khin Hrin Pan – New farm tilling
Khin Hrin Pan is a graduate of the New Roots for Refugees program. Her family is starting a new backyard farm and received funding to assist with tilling the new site.
Amazing Grace Orchard – Walk-in cooler
Amazing Grace Orchard received funding to help purchase a walk-in cooler to store their peaches, rather than leasing one as they have done in the past. This will be a tremendous asset to the orchard, enabling them to bring more peaches to market for an extended time. Amazing Grace Orchard sells at The City Market and others throughout the region, as well as wholesale. During peak season, Amazing Grace Orchard also donates fresh peaches to several food pantries, senior care centers, and senior citizen apartments throughout the community.
Dirt Beast Farm – Improved market access and produce distribution
Dirt Beast Farm will invest in marketing and signage at their farm and for farmers markets to attract more customers. This year, the farm is also shifting to a delivery system through redesigned website sales, increasesing access of locally grown produce by bringing the produce directly to the customer. Their model will offer free delivery to Dirt Beast Farm’s nearest neighbors (Paseo Blvd to Cleveland Ave, 35th St to Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd), and affordable delivery within a three-mile radius.
Muchicha Farm – New farm water access
Mediatrice Niyonkuru graduated from the New Roots for Refugees program and was able to purchase an empty lot in Kansas City, KS. She needs water access to make farming possible on this new site and will install a new water hydrant with mini grant funds.
Global One Urban Farming – Community garden capacity building
Global One Urban Farming is expanding their growing capacity on their one-acre garden site in the Vineyard neighborhood of Kansas City, MO. This mini grant project will invest in supplies and tools to improve indoor greenhouse and outdoor ground growing capacity to support the organization’s community garden site, youth garden classes, and free distribution of plants and fresh vegetables.
