Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience was Beginning Farmers wanting to scale up into the wholesale market with an emphasis on: Small farms Specialty crop producers Changes/Problems: This project was off to an excellent start in September 2018 and we had a great first year and a half of building our team and working with our target audience. We had many successes and were on target with the project timeline and target numbers. Then March 2020 happened and everything changed. This project was focused on matching beginning farmers with a wholesale market that was demanding more and more local food. That market crashed when the world and our community was shut down because of COVID. Our team spent the reminder of 2020 and into 2021 helping our beginning farmers navigate this new world. We adapted our education to fit the virtual world and helped the farmers that were not already selling online get started with that platform. As things started to "return to normal" in mid 2021, we were able to get some of the wholesale market momentum back. The beg. farmers that had the most success in this project were farmers that had a few years of successful farming already under their belt. They understood the fundamentals of the profession and had more confidence in their ability to produce what they set out to produce at the beginning of the season, so they were better able to crop plan. They also had a "team player" mindset and were open to feedback and learning from their peers and people with experience in the industry. Some of the most successful farmers were the ones that joined the KC Food Hub because they could focus on growing the food, while the Food Hu focused on selling it. Unexpected results: Video Series- Even before COVID hit, we were having trouble getting in-person participation at our workshops. The team spent time brainstorming what to do and how to meet our farmers where they were. That is when we decided to do a Video Series on demystifying wholesale that farmers could watch anytime, anywhere. The resulting 8-part video series was an unexpected result and one that we are very proud of. New Markets- during the months that followed lockdown COVID relief funds were coming from many sources. Some of these funds made available to food relief organization and some of the organizations wanted to use their funds to support local farmers. Through the extensive partnership of this project, we were able to help direct our beginning farmers to this new opportunity. Another new market that were were very happy about was Schools. We saw a huge demand from them for local food in 2022. We were glad the project was still going for the fourth year so that we could help beginning farmers get access to this emerging market. We will continue to help our farmers in this market space in 2023 What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The publications that were created under this funding have been disseminated in the following ways: Social media- Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, The Growing Growers web page, Blog posts, At workshops, events, and conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Notes for final year September 2021 to August 2022: Advisory Committee (AC)- Meetings with the AC happened every quarter or as needed during the third year of the project. Each member was involved in continuing to provide technical assistance to beginning farmers throughout the reminder of the project. They also helped promote the video project that was published in early 20222. Cultivate KC was the only partner that did not participate in the final of the project due to the funds being allocated to them being exhausted. Workshops- This project was involved two in-person events during the third year of the grant. Farm to Fork Summit in Feb. 2022- At this event we breakout sessions directed at beginning farmers. There were 92 people in attendance, 25 of which were beginning farmers. Eat Local Expo in April 2022- Our team was involved in organizing the Eat Local Expo where all Beginning Farmers were highlighted and made extra visible to potential customers. There were 20 beginning farmers highlighted and over 2000 customers in attendance. Eighty Seven percent of the farmers in attendance made new customer connections at the event. BFRDP Video Series: We completed an 8-part Demystifying Wholesale video series that we are very proud of. Total view so far: 616 Subscribers to the Demystifying Wholesale YouTube channel: 51 Mentor Program: 26 reported Mentor hours 12 Mentors on the Roster 8 Mentees on the Roster Map project: The Map project we have been working on is live and the public is visiting it: Landing page/ map launch April 2021: https://www.kchealthykids.org/eat-local-kc-map.html 1000+ views per month Current 9,192 views. (Estimation for 9/1-8/31) 5K view Initiallayers of the map that have launched: Food Circle Farmers (32); Farms (9); Restaurants (41); Grocers (20); Farmers Markets (17); Local Food PartnerOrgs layer (7) Eat Local KC Map numbers in Social Media FB Eat Local KC Map Launch Aug 25th 3,090 people reached Local Food Fridays spotlight map and local farmers, 7 Fridays during the grant period 100-300 reached per post (During this grant timeline it was close to 900) 41% of Food Circle Farmers are BeginningFarmer/Ranchers Technical Assistance (TA)- There were five TA providers for the project in year 3 of the project. TA Providers started getting back to in person visits this year. There were approximately 48 TA sessions with beginning farmers many of which were on farm. Three of these TA visits resulted in a connection made with the KC Food Hub and subsequent sales (more details in "Market-Matching") Market Matching- Understanding market trends continues to be a challenge. Many farmers we worked with this last year, expressed a lack of confidence in know what the market was going to do. That along with labor issues made for a tough year in 2022. However, as consumers returned to dining out, chefs started to buy more from farmers. The team helped farmers reach out to these chefs and other buyer that were looking for local food including more school buyers. Through the partnership with the KC Food Hub, beginning farmers in this program gained access to an additional 17 restaurants and 45 new schools resulting in $36,620 in sales in year four of the project. Other: There was continued outreach and advertising about the project on Social media and web via the Growing Growers platform. The Growing Growers webpage where information on our Beginning Farmer Project is housed gets an average of 555 views per month. The Growing Growers Facebook page, were the project is advertised has 20051 followers. Through a USDA NRCS funding opportunity we secured funding to continue the mentorship program so that it will continue past this project.
Publications
- Type:
Books
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/Item.aspx?catId=353&pubId=24240
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
https://www.youtube.com/@demystifyingwholesale7473/featured
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Begining Farmers in the Kansas City region. Changes/Problems:Market Challenges: The main challenge with the project this year continues to be the effect of the COVID 19 pandemic and the uncertianty it brought to the marketplace. It has been hard to help begining farmers plan for the season not know where the demand for local food will be. Workshop Challenges: Because of the pandemic and the very real "zoom fatigue" we heard from growers we have been reluctant to hold vittual programing. In-person was not an option as half of the partners on this project were restricted from holding in-person gatherings. Instead we supported efforts already taking place, like the Farmers and Friends gathering and the Farm to Fork Summit. Mentor Program Challenges: This program has imnproved with the dedicatied time of the Supply Chain Specailist, but it has still beed slow to take off. Everyone we have been working with has felt overwhelmed and not in a place to reach out for help. However, we have a full slate of mentors and mentees, so we plan to do somemore coaching to the mentees in this last year to get them to the right mentor. In general, the work has been challanging to get through, which is why we requested a 12 month extension. We are confident that we will complete the project in the next year and have a lot of impactful outcomes to report in the end. Including some really great educational materials to share. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the project have been shared at the Great Plains Growers Confernce (virtual) in Jan, 2021 as well as at the Farm to Fork Event (virtual) in Feb. 2021 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to complete this project in the next reporting period. In order to do this we will continue to work on the following projects: Continue with the mentor program. Complete the Dymistifying Wholesale video series and manual. Offer 3 in-person workshops on growing for the wholesale market. Continue to offer tecnical assitance and maket matching to begining farmers. Hold the 4th annual Farm to Fork summit that will feature programing for begining farmers. Monitor the activity on the GIS map Wrap up the work with the advisory committee
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Advisory Committee (AC)- Meetings with the AC happened every other month or as needed during the third year of the project. Each member was involved in the video project and helped edit the videos which are set to publish in early 2022. The AC member representing Cultivate KC, Mark Gawron, let that organization mid-year and they are looking for a replacement. However, Cultivate KC's sub-award is spent down to $0, so they will likely not appoint anyone else to the final year of the project. Workshops- This project was involved in two virtual events during the third year of the grant. Farmers and Friends gathering in February- We sponsored the workshop sessions focused on Wholesale production Farm to Fork Summit in February 2020 virtually- 93 attendees. Challenges: COVID 19 has already been addressed. To be more specific, the measures put in place to control the pandemic had major impacts on the way we were able to hold workshops. We adapted and took our programs online. We decided not to do a lot of online workshops, since it seemed the farming community was getting inundated with them. We will recommence in-person workshops when it is safe to do so for the workshops we still feel are needed and will be well attended. BFRDP Video Series: As mentioned in the last report, before COVID 19, we were struggling to get the attendance we anticipated and"In order to still be able to show beginning farmers what a wholesale farm looks like when it is in full operation, we will be putting some resources towards making 4-6 videos, 5-7mins long. These videos will be filmed on farm during peak season and made available to the public on YouTube as well as shown at the appropriate workshop."Despite COVID 19, the on farm filming and farmers interviews for the videos is nearly complete. There are still a few shots needed and interviews with buyers, but we are almost to the editing stage for the videos. Mentor Program-second year: 18 reported Mentor hours 8 Mentors on the Roster with one applicant pending 9 Mentees on the Roster 7 Actively in communication with Administrator or working with Mentors 2 Mentees have never responded to any type of correspondence The Mentor ProgramThe Supply Chain Specialist (SCS) housed at the KC Food Hub has continued to work within the limitations of the COVID 19 Pandemic with through 2021. Recruiting has been challenging due to the limited in person events. Outreach via social media, conference announcements such as Farm to Fork, emails and the Growing Growers Listserv, 14 beginning farmers applied to the program and after review by the BFRDG Team,10 farmers joined the 2021 Mentee co-hort. Three of the other applicants are new farmers with less than 2 years' experience and were referred to Growing Growers programming and the Growing Growers Apprenticeship to gain more experience. One of is a flower producer and was directed to flower farming resources by the SCS. A majority of outreach has remained one to one communication, monthly video calls, group emails and texts. A new opportunity to network and recruit beginning farmers included presentations to the Kansas City Young Farmer's Coalition. In addition to regular emails sharing resources the SCS worked individually with each beginning farmer to match them with the Mentor that might be a good fit. The parties connected and worked together. To streamline reporting, each correspondence includes the links to reporting documents and the SCS sends emails and makes follow up calls to the Mentees as a reminder to report. The SCC checks in with the Mentees regularly to get updates on progress and to look for other opportunities for mentoring. New resources such as the Demystifying the Wholesale Market manual were shared with the cohort. Phone conversations and emails include coaching and identifying needs and opportunities, and referrals for technical assistance. The Mentees are encouraged to reach out to the SCS with challenges in their operation. One example this year was a greenhouse producer who was experiencing die back specific to the thyme rows in the mixed plot. The SCS connected the producer with technical assistance. Not only was an intervention successful, but the producer learned some new ways to manage the greenhouse environment to avoid problems in the future. In November, the Mentor Program participants were asked to check-in via email about their 2021 season. Four responses were reflective of another unusual year of new systems and challenges in finding time to incorporate mentoring into their schedule. The mentoring sessions that did occur reflected the value in matching experienced farmers with beginning farmers and the growth and support that is cultivated in the community. Challenges and Opportunities: A continued challenge with the program mentees in general is their hesitancy to reach out to mentors during high season. Three of the beginning farmers reached in October to apologize for not having time to participate with Mentors over the season. In response to this, the SCS is began outreach to new applicants and current cohorts over winter instead of March. An early timeline for the engagement process will match new farmers with resources early in the season and avoid startup conversations happening during the high season. The SCS will continue to focus on building relationships within the group with online meetups over the winter into 2022. Two new Mentor farmers joined the ranks bringing more diversity and capacity to the team. More farmers are interested in diversifying revenue. The SCS is working to gather all the past and new mentee farmers together to vision topics for meetups and start the matching of needs with a Mentor to support a productive 2022 season. Map project: The Map project we have been working on is live and the public is visiting it: Landing page/ map launch April 2021: https://www.kchealthykids.org/eat-local-kc-map.html 1000+ views per month Current 9,192 views. (Estimation for 9/1-8/31) 5K view Initiallayers of the map that have launched: Food Circle Farmers (32); Farms (9); Restaurants (41); Grocers (20); Farmers Markets (17); Local Food PartnerOrgs layer (7) Eat Local KC Map numbers in Social Media FB Eat Local KC Map Launch Aug 25th 3,090 people reached Local Food Fridays spotlight map and local farmers, 7 Fridays during the grant period 100-300 reached per post (During this grant timeline it was close to 900) 41% of Food Circle Farmers are BeginningFarmer/Ranchers Technical Assistance (TA)- There were five TA providers for the project in year 3 of the project. Once again, COVID 19 had a major impact on the ability to provide in-person TA visits. Most consultations happen over the phone or via email. There were approximately 34 TA sessions with beginning farmers that were more than 30 mins in length. Market Matching- As the market started to settle back into some kind of normal, the team helped farmers reach back out to buyers that were closed due to COVID and made new connection with business newly launched. One buyer coming back on board in late 2021 is the Lee's summit school district. They will hopefully be buying from at least one of our beginning farmers then. For the reporting period this past year, in addition to the beginning farmers that are still selling into the new markets we have helped establish over the course of this grant, three new beginning farmers have been matched to new markets. Challenges: COVID 19 is still having effects on market volitivity and our ability to recruit new buyers. Farmers are looking forward to growing more but getting commitments from buyers can be a challenge. BFRDP Video Series: We have completed the filming for the 7-part video series on Demystifying wholesale. The editing and video compilation is now taking place. They will be complete and launched to the public in early 2022.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Begining Farmers with less than 10 years of experince farming. The majority of them are specailty crop farmers. Changes/Problems:Market Challenges: The main challenge with the project this year was the effect that COVID 19 had on the main target market for this project, which is the wholesale market. For example the KC Food Hub saw nearly every single wholesale client close just a few weeks before the farmers were ready to start the main harvest season. We scrambled to help farmers find new markets and help the partners on the project cope with the chaos that COVID brought to the food system. As a result, the well organized plan for this project was thrown out the window and we adapted the best that we could. Workshop Challenges: COVID 19 has already been addressed. To be more specific, the measures put in place to control the pandemic had major impacts on the way we were able to hold workshops. We adapted and took our programs online. We decided not to do a lot of online workshops, since it seemed the farming community was getting inundated with them. We will recommence in-person workshops when it is safe to do so for the workshops we still feel are needed and will be well attended. Mentor program Challenges: Calls to Mentees revealed a common thread with challenges of demand and balancing ways to grow more food and fast-tracking development or scaling up infrastructure. A challenge with the program mentees in general is their hesitancy to reach out to mentors. They did not want to impose on the mentors' busy schedule. The hands-on approach by the SCS to actively work with mentees and get them connected with the right mentor has worked to build relationships this year. The SCS will focus on building relationship within the group with online meetups over the winter. It will be a chance to share successes and solutions, build the community and dream a little about what 2021 may bring. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional development opportnities were not provided due to COVID. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We once again attended the Great Plains Growers Conference and had a booth in the exhibitor's area. We were able to talk with farmers across the region about the project and share workshop information. We created a flyer to hand out to the over 300 growers that attend this conference. We will be attending the event again and looking to connect with more growers. Continued to do outreach and advertising about the project on Social media and web via the Growing Growers platform. The Growing Growers webpage where information on our Beginning Farmer Project is housed gets an average of 590 views per month. The growing growers Facebook page, were the project is advertised has 1700 followers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue to admister and improve the programs we have created in the first two years, specifically Hold 2-3 more workshops; Reruite 5new begining farmer Mentees into the mentor program; Continue to have one on one technical assitance visites with begining farmers; Continue to open the new wholesale markets up that are appropriate for small begining farmers; Meet bi-monthly with the advisory committee to discuss the program and make needed changes as they come up; Complete the Beginign Farmer video series that we have been working on; Complete and start using the GIS farmer map.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have made good progress in the second year of the grant despite the chaos and confusion caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. There were adjustments that had to be made in the way we executed the activities of the grant. All of these adjustments are explained in the following paragraphs. Advisory Committee (AC)- there were no changes to the members of the AC, but as stated in the original plan of work we moved to meeting bimonthly instead of monthly. After March due to COVID 19 all of our meetings were held virtually. In these meetings a large topic of discussion was how we would provide assistance to beginning farmers virtually. Most of the partners at the table started working remotely and were not allowed to make in-person visits from March to November. Workshops- We managed to have two in-person events before COVID-19 made that an unwise decision starting in late March in the mid-west. We also held one webinar in April. Farmers and Friends gathering in February in Kansas City. Members of the BFRDP project helped organize the aggregation part of this day-long event. The keynote speaker focused much of their remarks on aggregation (180 in attendance) and then the aggregation break-out sessions drew 40 attendees in the first session and 20 in the second. Farm to Fork Summit in February 2020 in Osceola, Mo- 140 attendees. Webinar: Take Your Local Food Online in April 2020- 58 attendees and 394 views on YouTube Feed Communities Local Food Now in May 2020- 15 attendees (not posted to YouTube after webinar) BFRDP Video Series: As mentioned in the last report, before COVID 19, we were struggling to get the attendance we anticipated and"In order to still be able to show beginning farmers what a wholesale farm looks like when it is in full operation, we will be putting some resources towards making 4-6 videos, 5-7mins long. These videos will be filmed on farm during peak season and made available to the public on YouTube as well as shown at the appropriate workshop."Despite COVID 19, the on farm filming and farmers interviews for the videos is nearly complete. There are still a few shots needed and interviews with buyers, but we are almost to the editing stage for the videos. Mentor Program-second year: 18 reported Mentor hours 8 Mentors on the Roster with one applicant pending 9 Mentees on the Roster 7 Actively in communication with Administrator or working with Mentors 2 Mentees have never responded to any type of correspondence The Mentor Program coordination responsibilities were transitioned in May 2020 to the Supply Chain Specialist (SCS) housed at the KC Food Hub. The SCS has had to shift and work within the limitations of the COVID 19 Pandemic. Recruiting and networking has been accomplished in group gatherings, conferences, and workshops. In the absence of those venues outreach has been one to one communication, group emails and texts. The SCS worked individually with each beginning farmer to match them with the Mentor that might be a good fit. The parties connected and worked together. To streamline reporting, each correspondence includes the links to reporting documents and the SCS sends emails and makes follow up calls to the Mentees as a reminder to report. The SCC checks in with the Mentees regularly to get updates on progress and to look for other opportunities for mentoring. These phone conversations include coaching and identifying needs and opportunities, and referrals for technical assistance. The Mentees are encouraged to reach out to the SCS with challenges in their operation. For instance, one Mentee farmer called with a problem with his tomatoes. The SCS matched him with one of the Technical Assistance Team and the problem was addressed. In September, the Mentor Program participants were asked to check-in via email about their 2020 season. Five responses reflected the pivot most farmers had to make to on-farm pickup and online ordering of some sort. Hiring- As mentioned in the previous section, the KC Food Hub hired a Supply Chain Specialist in May 2020. This person not only has taken on the responsibilityfor the Mentor Program, they have also been doing technical assistanceto beginningfarmers and matching beginningfarmers with wholesale market outlets. In year two we are fully staffed. Wholesale Manual and Guide sheets-Partners Kansas State University and the KC Food Hub have been working on the Demystifying Wholesale manual and guide sheets on individual produce items. There has been extensive progress made on this project including adopting some of the work that has already been done in this area by Cornell Extension (with their permission and enthusiasm). Map project: A comparison of existing and established regional and statewide local food mapping projects has been completed to see what might work best for this project. Interviews were conducted by the lead person on map project with 5 institutions (Vermont Food Systems atlas, Missouri Coalition for the Environment Local Food Shed, Adirondack Harvest, etc.) We also researched existing KC Healthy Kids (lead partner on the mapping) web platforms (flipcause/ neon) for membership sign up capabilities to host the map, as well as determine other feasible mapping platforms (google maps, GIS, Leaflet) that align with project model, short/ long term objectives and existing resources (funding and time/ effort/ expertise). We also piloted the map layers with existing partners (restaurants, grocery stores, farmers markets) and growers. Technical Assistance (TA)- There were six TA providers for the project in year 2 of the project. COVID 19 had a major impact on the ability to provide in-person TA visits. Most consultations happen over the phone or via email. There was a surge in information requested on how to sell online, which is one reason we organized the webinar mentioned above. Market Matching- Restaurant and other wholesale outlet closures and Farmers Market disruptions caused a lot of anxiety and confusion for farmers. Our TA providers did an excellent job of helping these farmers identify new markets during COVID. We matched beginning farmers with appropriate markets and two of the partners on this project created entirely new markets for these growers. The KC Food Hub started a retail Neighborhood Farm Share program, KC Healthy Kids started supplying food boxes to Early Childhood Education sites, and West Central was able to secure funds to purchase over $30K of local food for one of our food pantries. A percentage of the local food purchases was from beginning farmers.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target Audience are small begining farmers ready to scale into wholesale prouction. A majority of our audience are specialty crop producers. Changes/Problems:WorkshopChallenges: The main challenge for workshops is attendance. The workshops were intentionally scheduled during the growing season so beginning farmers could see the farms where the workshops were hosted during production. While we accept that the interest from beginning farmers for moving into wholesale is a little smaller than the general population of beginning growers, we recognized that attendance would likely be stronger in the off season. Therefore, we have decided to move the other workshops we will be organizing under this project to a more convenient time of the year for growers. In order to still be able to show beginning farmers what a wholesale farm looks like when it is in full operation, we will be putting some resources towards making 4-6 videos, 5-7mins long. These videos will be filmed on farm during peak season and made available to the public on YouTube as well as shown at the appropriate workshop. Mentor ProgramChallenges- this program has not been as utilized as we had hoped. It was hard to get both Mentors and Mentees to apply. Mentees are also not making contact with mentors. We are guessing it is because it was launched during the busiest time of the season for farmers. We plan to do some introduction events over the winter to encourage the mentees to take advantage of the program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two of the co-project investigaters on this projectfrom KC Healthy Kids and KC Food Hub attended the Power of Procurement Summit in Chicago, where over 250 national and regional food system leaders from 20 cohorts across the US came together to deepen and accelerate coordination efforts related to leveraging procurement as a strategy to drive large- scale food systems transformation in support of racial and societal equity. As a result, a conversation among the KC cohort who attended, which included city officials, have started to explore partnership and what local food procurement could look like for the city. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have been advertising the opportunites associated with this project in several ways: Each partner organization advertisedto their indivudual networks We addedthis project to the established Growing Growers website. A well known farmer apprenticship program based in Kansas City. this website gets an average of 546 viewers per month. The project has several pages on the site (growinggrowers.org/beginning-farmer-wholesale-project.html) that explain what the project is about and how to access it. Social media posting is a constant. All parners are sharing to their social media accounts including groweing growers that ha over 1400 followers. Great Plains Growers Confernce- We displayed at thisannual in Jan. 2019 and plan to do this again in 2020. Over 350speciaty crop growers attend this conference each year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue to admister and improve the programs we have created in the first year. There are the main activites for the coming year: Plan and hold five workshops Reruite 10 new begining farmer Mentees into the mentor program Continue to have one on one technical assitance visites with begining farmers Continue to open the new wholesale markets up that are appropriate for small begining farmers Meet bi-monthly with the advisory committee to discuss the program and make needed changes as they come up.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the first year of this project we have been busy executing the stated activities of the grant. However, the project got off to a slow start. The final approval process and release of funds took almost six months. In the second week in April, USDA funds were available for this project. As a result, our partners and West Central were unable to hire or pay for items listed in the grant timeline from Sept-March. We were reluctant to spend money when we did not know how long it would take to get reimbursed. While waiting for the funds to be available, we did manage to accomplish some of the stated activities and after funds were available we really got going. Advisory Committee- The advisory committee was formed. It includes staff from all partner organizations and two farmer advisors. Our first meeting was September 5, 2018. With the exception of March, we met monthly, from that time until August 2019. At these meetings we generated the workshop schedule and assigned lead staff to each workshop, set up Technical Assistance protocol and a survey to collect information from farmers, designed the mentor program, and discussed a multitude of ideas each month on how to make the program stronger as well as ideas for more collaboration across the five collaborating organizations. Workshops- A calendar for the first year of workshops was developed at the advisory meetings. Since September, four workshops have been held with a total of 33 unduplicated attendees. The workshops given and the number of attendees are listed below. Workshop evaluation summaries for each workshop are posted in the Evaluations and Reports Section. Demystifying The Wholesale Market- 16 attendees Production Planning for Small and Large-scale Vegetable Growers - 12 attendees Wholesale Tomato Production - 5 attendees Wholesale Cucumber Production - 9 attendees Mentor program- The mentor program, including the application process, was designed and developed. From February to April we advertised and accepted applications for both Mentees and Mentors. The program has been up and running since the beginning of July. There are six mentees and nine mentors currently in the program. Each mentee has 25 hrs of mentoring to spend with the mentors. As of the end of August no hours have been spent yet. Hiring- In the original proposal, one full-time and three part-time staff were thought to be needed to execute the objectives of the project. All hiring was in limbo for the first few months of the grant due to funding concerns. West Central hired one part-time staff person in April 2019. This person provides administrative support for all aspects of the project and has been invaluable. All partners involved in the grant went through various staff changes around the time the grant was awarded. As a result, there was some reshuffling and re-staffing to the activities they committed too. Cultivate KC has a dedicated one staff person to this project (20% of their time). KC Healthy Kids hired one part-time in July to work on project objectives. KC Food Hub has one staff member spending roughly 30-40% of their time on the objectives for this project.They plan to increase staff time for fulfilling the grant objectives in the coming year. Kansas State University (KSU) original staff moved onto a new position with KSU Extension, but is still involved with the project on an in-kind basis.KSU is in the process of filling the part-time role they have available through this grant. Technical Assistance (TA)- We provided TA to 30 of farmers across Kansas and Missouri. The information provided in these TA sessions includes: high tunnel tomato production, soil and drainage, fruit yield and quality, General questions about what to grow for the wholesale market, selling to restaurants, A result of one TA visit, Zach Hoppenstedt (KSU partner), submitted a Specialty Crop Block Grant to trial some tree netting for improved fruit yield and quality one of the beginning farmer's farms Matchin farmers with markets-as a result of our work 13 begining farmers have had access to new wholesale markets. Other Activities- We attended the Great Plains Growers Conference and had a booth in the exhibitor's area. We were able to talk with farmers across the region about the project and share workshop information. We created a flyer to hand out to the over 300 growers that attend this conference. We will be attending the event again and looking to connect with more growers. Outreach and Advertising about the project on Social media and web via the Growing Growers platform. The Growing Growers webpage where information on our Beginning Farmer Project is housed gets an average of 546 views per month. The growing growers Facebook page, were the project is advertised has 1400 followers. KC Healthy Kids and KC Food Hub staff attended the Power of Procurement Summit in Chicago, where over 250 national and regional food system leaders from 20 cohorts across the US came together to deepen and accelerate coordination efforts related to leveraging procurement as a strategy to drive large- scale food systems transformation in support of racial and societal equity. As a result, a conversation among the KC cohort who attended, which included city officials, have started to explore partnership and what local food procurement could look like for the city.
Publications
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