Current Local Food Fellows

The following positions have been filled at this time:

• Columbus KS Farmers Market
• Cultivate Kansas City
• Douglas County
• Full Circle Sustainability
• Grass Roots Institute of Kansas
• Harvey County Health Department
• K-State Research and Extension Barber County
• K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District
• K-State Research and Extension Cowley County
• K-State Research and Extension Douglas County
• K-State Research and Extension Reno County
• Kansas Black Farmers Association
• Liberal Area Coalition for Families
• Pittsburg Farmers' Market
• RISE Cowley
• TOAST

The following positions have been filled at this time.

• Johnson County K-State Research and Extension
• Kansas Local Foods
• K-State Research and Extension Meadowlark District

Sophia Ong - Cultivate Kansas City

• Project Summary: With goals to provide a metro-wide price report, this fellow project involved visiting 19 farmers markets across the Kansas City region to gather weekly prices of local produce and meat. These price reports serve as a resource for farmers to use as they price their goods. Sophia also got to participate in the work Cultivate KC does in supporting urban farms in Kansas City by attending meetings and volunteering on farms- providing an opportunity to connect with the farmers and relate more to their work. The June and July 2024 Pricing Reports can be viewed on the Cultivate KC website blog posts written by Sophia.
• Success Story by Sophia: “I got to meet some of the coolest people each week at farmers' markets. As I would be making stops four times at each one through the summer, and see many vendors at different markets, I had vast opportunities to connect with them, hear their why and their passion behind the work that they do, and share with them the work that I was doing. In meeting them and hearing their stories, it allowed me to connect more with the work I did, and aside from the goal itself of the project being completed, gave me my own "why" as I did my work each week. Some of the vendors it was bittersweet telling them it was my last visit in this project, but now I have many markets and farmers that I can come back to as a customer and keep the connection up!"

Hannah Gilpatrick - K-State Research and Extension Wabaunsee County

• Project Summary: This fellow coordinated Summer Lunch programs in Wabaunsee County three days a week for eight weeks, serving about 660 balanced meals to kids. Hannah worked very closely with Community Care in Alma to provide these meals and also supported the Harvesters mobile food events in Maple Hill, Alma, and Eskridge. There they handed out information about SNAP and other programs going on in the county. In addition, they supported new SNAP participants with applications. This project also included educational outreach including bread and butter making day, creation of a cookbook with resources about meal prepping, reading food labels, and balanced diets, as well as creating lesson plans for Farm-To-Fork involving dairy, poultry, plants, and food groups. Each lesson includes activities, engagement, and information about topics in Kansas but also specific to Wabaunsee County.
• Success Story from Hannah: "During Summer Lunch there was one specific little boy that always stood out to me as each day he would walk up and survey the food and would be so excited and each meal was his "favorite". Not only was it rewarding to feed so many kids throughout the summer as they were not receiving meals from school but even more so as the kids presented us with hand-made thank-you cards at the last lunch writing about how much they appreciated not only the food but the lessons/activities provided after."

Ellie Bellerive - Riley County and City of Manhattan Food and Farm Council

• Project Summary: This summer project focused on an educational campaign for the Food and Farm Council. This involved addressing the need for more community members to know what nutritional programs and opportunities are available to them. Ellie created educational produce videos, social media posts, new program signage, surveys, and program development to help the Food & Farm council programs better reach their desired audience and educate people on how to reduce waste, eat local, and decrease food insecurity. You can view many of these resources on the Nourish Together website.

• Success Story from Ellie: “Working at the Power of Produce stand one Saturday this summer (Manhattan Downtown Farmers Market) a mother came up to me and thanked me for all the work we do for this program. She mentioned that her child would never eat carrots when she tried to feed them to her. But now that her daughter had the freedom and independence to buy produce with her own money (dollar tokens), they feel more empowered to eat and cook with what they bought. This was great reassurance that all the hard work put into the programs are bearing good fruit!”

Adelaide Easter - Riley County and City of Manhattan Food and Farm Council

• Project Summary: Developing a strategic plan to integrate the Flint Hills Food Recovery (FHFR) program into Kansas State University's broader efforts. FHFR focuses on recovering safe, nutritious food that would otherwise be wasted and redistributing it to local food pantries and shelters, having successfully recovered over 45,000 pounds of food in two years. Key aspects of the project included assessing the current state and identifying barriers in Manhattan and Riley County, examining food recovery efforts at other higher education institutions, and developing a strategic communications plan. Adelaide also met with key university administration and external stakeholders, and created a guidebook to help other universities implement effective food recovery strategies. Take a look at the FHFR at K-State.
• Success Story from Vickie James, Food and Farm Council Coordinator:

  "Adelaide met with 8/9 University College Deans and staff members, Health Promoting University Chairs First Lady Sally Linton and Kathleen Hatch, Student Government, Greek Life, School of Leadership Studies, Library Services, Graduate School, and many others. Those are leaders of the University and not easy to get time with let alone engage them in new efforts. This will set the baseline and establish a means of communication and education about our local food system, our local farms/food businesses and increase partnerships to grow relationships from University to community not just with food recovery but how can they work together for marketing, support and promotion of local foods."

Jenna Morrison - Allen County Farmers Market: Iola, KS

• Project Summary: This project focused on coordinating the Allen County Farmers' Market including three locations throughout the summer. Fellow Jenna spent her time at the market booth during each market coordinating SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks voucher sales. She made efforts to advertise the market at several local news outlets and included a Wednesday indoor market to encourage people to shop locally in a climate controlled environment for those who needed it.

• Success Story from Jenna: "One of the engagement events I coordinated at market was a pumpkin painting night. We had over forty kids attend and that was a huge success."

Abby Deckert - Harvey County Health Department: Newton, KS

• Project Summary: Abby’s project was focused on coordinating outreach and events for the Harvey County Farmers Market located in Newton. She scheduled entertainment for the market including several music performances and reached out to marquis in town to get the market advertised. She also made promotional materials, such as Facebook posts and flyers to distribute around town about SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) in English and Spanish. In addition, Abby scheduled meal/food prep demonstrations at the farmers market to try to make produce more accessible to people.

• Success Story from Abby: "One week I was manning the DUFB booth and a Honduran couple came who had just registered for SNAP. They did not speak English very well, and I was able to give them instructions in Spanish for how to use DUFB. She thanked me and gave me her phone number so I could practice my Spanish. The couple continued to attend the market."

Becca Warta - Central Topeka Grocery Oasis & Shawnee County Farm and Food Council: Topeka, KS

• Project Summary: The main task of this project was to survey the Central Topeka community about needs and preferences for the future grocery store. To do this, the fellow created a one-page survey in English and Spanish and made it available online and in print. They surveyed around 300 people and collected that data for CTGO to use in future grant making and funding decisions. In addition, time was used to support the food and farm council with projects including website copy and grant research.

• Success Story from Sarah Karns, Site Supervisor: “Becca was able to get over 300 survey responses from the community! This data can be used to inform the CTGO board on what they need to do in order to best serve their shoppers.”

Laura Thomas - Liberal Area Coalition for Families: Liberal, KS

• Project Summary: The primary purpose was to expand outreach and engagement for the Liberal Farmers Market including Spanish language access. The fellow went to over 90 locations in Seward County and the surrounding areas and shared information about SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks. They organized 10 events at the market to encourage participation and shared 44 Facebook lives to multiple pages and groups gathering attention and outreach.
• Success Story from Debra Huddleston, Market Manager: “Laura was a life saver for our market! Because of the fellow and what we were able to offer at the market, we doubled our SNAP participation from last year, formed a lot of new partnerships, acquired a lot of new vendors (therefore increasing our customer participation), and formed a better relationship with the Spanish-speaking community by having translation services available to vendors and customers alike! The vendors made it a point to tell me how valuable it was to them to have someone who spoke impeccable Spanish and could communicate with Spanish-speaking people from countries other than Mexico. We had an average of 30 vendors per market this year and we were both struggling to keep up!”

Alex Randall - Thunder Ridge School USD 110: Kensington, KS

• Project Summary: The fellow was able to implement the second chance breakfast program at Thunder Ridge High School, providing students with an extended opportunity to access breakfast. They also worked to increase the number of items procured through the local grocer and began the planning steps for a program to accept local beef donations for the school food service program.

• Success Story from Janelle VanKooten, Site Supervisor: “The implementation of second chance breakfast more than doubled the amount of students participating in school breakfast. Before the implementation of second chance breakfast, an average of 12 students participated. Now, an average of 29 of the 64 students eat school breakfast.”

Kelly Perry - Healthy Bourbon County Action Team, INC., Fort Scott, KS

• Project Summary: This project included updating and enhancing an online food wholesale and buyer directory for the region. In addition, Kelly hosted a workshop for farmers market vendors or others starting a food business, with partners from KS Dept. of Agriculture, to present and answer questions about labels, licenses, and food safety. Kelly also created four storytelling campaigns featuring local food businesses for the HBCAT social media.
• Success Story from HBCAT Leadership: "This project came at a time when the community had a boom in farmers market attendance and many vendors needed the resources and connections offered regarding regulations on proper labeling and samples at markets. Our fellow was a local face that residents were familiar with and trusted to ask questions. Kelly would always follow up with resources or connections to other experts to provide support."

Cassidy Perry - Juniper Hill Farms, Lawrence, KS

• Project Summary: This fellow worked to create tools to help Juniper Hill Farms pitch their products to retail grocery stores. New materials included a pricing sheet to communicate pricing efficiently as well as other marketing and promotional materials.
• Success Story from Juniper Hill Farms: "We have a stronger price list that we can more quickly generate customer reports from to send to specific customers."

Morgan Barba - Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS

• Project Summary: First, a local food directory was developed to identify local producers more efficiently and gauge interest in providing local fresh produce year-round. The second part of this project included a community survey, distributed via a local radio station related to community interest in local fresh produce. Feedback from the community and the producers allowed the fellow to provide recommendations for continued progress to meet the needs of the Hays community.
• Success Story from Morgan: "The survey received 129 responses from community members in the Hays and surrounding communities. It offered excellent insights such as community interest in bi-weekly local food shares program and community garden opportunities."

Kelli Snider-Short - K-State Research and Extension Reno County, Hutchinson, KS

• Project Summary: Creating a digital local food producer directory for the Reno County area, this project focused on in-person site visits with local producers. Kelli showcased local producers through personal interviews and story telling so that readers can feel as though they have met the producers. Take a look at the gorgeous directory available on the Reno County website.
• Success Story from Kelli: "Perhaps most inspiring was hearing about everyone's unique background and yet almost all had the same driving force to produce natural, nutritious food, and the educate others about how local food can support our individual, community, and economic health."

Anna Skenadore - Lawrence Farmers Market, Lawrence, KS

• Project Summary: With the fellow funding, the Lawrence Farmers Market was able to hire their existing market manager full-time which allowed them the opportunity to plan more programming for vendors and customers. Additional projects included a Vendor Market Guide, SNAP education outreach, mapping the market with GIS software, and social media highlighting more live content during market.
• Success Story from Anna: "It was amazing to attend my spring vendor meeting and to see my hard work being presented to vendors. To be able to educate them on the new token program we introduced this year and licensing/insurance procedures, it was very cool to see all my work come together at one time."

Sonya Nicholson - Children First CEO, Wichita, KS

• Project Summary: The project launched Grandma's Kitchen to empower at-risk individuals by providing an opportunity to learn how to cook nutritious meals. Participants were provided a stipend for participating in food prep and cooking homemade casseroles utilizing locally produced meat that were later provided to families in temporary housing. The time was also used to share experiences and current challenges among participants.
• Success Story from Children First CEO Director: "One of the participants mentioned that she was a nurse but needed $150 to renew her license. We jumped into gear and with other funding were able to pay the renewal fee. What a game-changer for her and her family! Without this program, she would have never felt comfortable to share that information...the magic of the kitchen.