For Immediate Release – March 5, 2009
Contact: Janet Brown Moss – 816/531-6577 or 816/695-0033 janetbridgeworks AT sbcglobal.net
Kansas City Urban Farms and Gardens Tour
Food From the City…For the City
Take note of the ten-day urban food events
June 18-28, 2009 that highlight the
variety of ways people are growing food in the Kansas City Metro
Opening event: Thursday, June 18 – 6-8PM, Central Library
Closing event: Sunday, June 28 – 11-5PM Tours at 30+ urban farms from Shawnee, KS, to Independence, MO, north and south of the river and many points in between
Tickets: $5 for one person or $12 for a family ticket, folks can visit as many of the participating farms as time permits. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57884 , the Food Circle Expo in Shawnee on March 28, in Independence on April 4, Brookside, 39th Street, City Market, Minor Park, KCKS Farmers Markets or at farms the day of the event. All proceeds benefit KCCUA, Inc
Presented by KC Center for Urban Agriculture Inc. (KCCUA), P.O. Box 6043, Kansas City, Kansas 66106 (913) 831-2444 – info@kccua.org www.kccua.org All proceeds benefit KCCUA.
Categories of farms and gardens:
• Urban Farms…Feed the People
• Charitable & Educational Gardens….Sow the Seed
• Community Gardens…Grow the Neighborhood
• Home Gardens and Urban Homesteads…Feed the Family
Sampling of events June 18-28:
• Programs and Displays at area libraries,
• Films on urban food at All Souls UU Church
• Urban Homesteading class at Bad Seed Market
• Food preservation class at Drumm Farm Garden
• Programs by youth highlighting gardening they are doing
• Harvest meal prepared from produce raised in Bread of Life Church Garden
• Eat Out Local Night at restaurants using locally-produced food in menu items.
3rd Kansas City Urban Farms and Gardens Tour: Food from the City, for the City
More than 30 urban farms and gardens across the Kansas City Metro are opening their gates to the public at the peak of growing season on Sunday, June 28. The Kansas City Farms and Gardens Tour will show the many ways food is being grown in our city—from farms that grow 30,000 pounds of vegetables a season, to “edible schoolyards” and urban homesteads complete with chickens. Ten days of pre-tour events about growing and eating local food will whet people’s appetites for the Tour.
By popular request, urban food events will precede the tour from June 18-28, 2009: educational programs and displays at area libraries, a documentary film showing, a harvest meal prepared from produce raised in a church garden in KCKS and perhaps even some community art.
The celebration of urban growing begins Thursday, June 18 at 6PM with a Food from the City, for the City program at the Central Library. The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture (KCCUA), organizer of the Tour, is hosting speakers and a discussion about how urban farms can transform city neighborhoods and grow healthy food for residents.
June 24 is Eat Out Local Night at restaurants that use locally grown food. A growing number of restaurants source their ingredients locally. They prize access to the freshest ingredients and promote a return to healthier ways of eating. People are encouraged to “eat out locally” for lunch or dinner. Participating restaurants will be listed on the farms tour web site: www.urbanfarmstourkc.com.
Some of you may remember KCCUA’s first Urban Farms Tour in 2005. It featured six urban farms and attracted some 200 folks. The 2nd biennial Urban Farms Tour in 2007 highlighted eleven farms for more than 600 folks! The 2009 Tour has grown to 34 farms and gardens, and is expecting 2,000 visitors. At each of these sites people can enjoy one or more of the following: homemade music, samples of home-cooked foods, participating in children’s art and craft activities, viewing bees–their honey and wax, and more.
This year’s tour includes four kinds of urban food production:
- Urban Farms – Small farms and small businesses. These farms grow produce that feeds thousands across Kansas City. 70,000 small farms started in the US in the last 5 years. This is the new American family farm. (16 sites + 8 refugee farms)
- Charitable and Educational Gardens—These gardens produce food for soup kitchens, food pantries and schools. They serve as living laboratories for school children, and offer job skills training for adults and youth. (11 sites)
- Community Gardens—Places where neighbors grow food side-by-side for family and friends, community gardens help neighborhoods grow closer. (3 sites)
- Home Gardens and Urban Homesteads – A little lawn makes a lot of garden! When family members grow together they save money, get exercise and love their fresh veggies. (6 sites)
The Farms and Gardens Tour comes at a time when home gardening and local vegetable production is undergoing a resurgence. Seed companies across the country are selling out of product. The home gardening industry is one of the few success stories in the recession.
“What we’re seeing now, in response to the food safety scares, rising food costs, and rising rates of diet-related diseases is a phenomenal interest in home gardening and in entrepreneurial farming,” said Katherine Kelly, executive director of KCCUA.
Local production of vegetables is hardly a new phenomenon: during World War II, Victory Gardens grew 40% of America’s produce. “If you talk to older folks in Kansas City, they’ll tell you about how home gardening used to be commonplace,” said Kelly. “The city used to be ringed by commercial farms that grew all kinds of vegetables and fruits to feed Kansas Citians—and even shipped them out regionally and nationally.”
KCCUA’s Associate Director Daniel Dermitzel adds, “urban agriculture is also very effective in promoting broader societal change because it re-connects us to the natural systems upon which our survival depends and deepens our understanding of the interconnectedness of all life on earth.”
Tickets can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57884. Cost is $5 per person or $12 per family. Tickets are also available at the 11th Annual “Eat Local! Expo of Farmers” organized by the Kansas City Food Circle in Shawnee on March 28, or in Independence on April 4, and at the following farmers’ markets: Brookside, 39th Street, City Market, Minor Park, KCKS Farmers Markets or at farms the day of the event.
Groups such as religious congregations, schools, libraries, workplaces, etc. are encouraged to plan a Food From the City…For the City 2009 event and if you let us know about it, we’ll list it on the website.
Visit www.kccua.org regularly and keep your ears open to hear of the urban food activities that will be happening June 18-28, 2009! Get ready to have some good times with the whole family, create some urban farm memories and learn something about local food and sustainable cities along the way.
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