Foundation Journal

From the opening scene of a train traveling through a barren Kansas landscape and notes from a Neko Case song, the film caught my attention. The film used no narration, so film goers had to watch and listen closely to the characters. The film depicted blue-collar workers, immigrant meat packing workers, conservative Christians, farmers, and opponents and supporters of abortion, among others. After the December 11 Liberty Hall (Lawrence, KS) screening of documentary film "What's the Matter with Kansas?" based on Thomas Franks' book of the same name, Donn Teske, President of the Kansas Farmers Union, spoke about his role in the film and the future of farming in Kansas. Teske showed both his "Populist without a Party" and tell-it-like-it-is traits during the discussion. The film followed the book's central theme of politics in Kansas converging towards extreme conservatism despite a distant history of progressive and populist politics. While the film sh

I attended a meeting hosted by US Representative Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri 5th District, at JP Coffee in Lee's Summit on Saturday, August 8, 2009. According to Kansas City’s Fox 4 News there were 300 people in attendance, but once people found out the breakfast meeting was not a town hall gathering, many chose to leave the block-long line forming outside the coffee house. A group of about 30 people opposed to health care reform started chanting something about congressional use of jets and “Free Market! Free Market!” – they were clearly having fun despite their lack of a central message. Then there was a chant about the constitution, but when a pro-reform person shouted out “What about Bush and the constitution?” the protesters dropped the chant. My intent was not to rally with people supporting health care reform (though I support reform) but to test anti-reformers – why would anyone be opposed to health care for all Americans? The quick answer to that question is that some of the

The Tomato Fair brought out a sizable crowd to Farrand Farms at 5941 Noland Road in Kansas City, Missouri on August 1, 2009. The full parking lot was a testament to the crowd size. The nursery farm is located in the Little Blue River valley between Raytown, Independence, Lee's Summit, and Kansas City. The event was well-organized by the nursery gardens owner as they had a lot of activities focused on the featured vegetable -- the tomato. There was a tomato tasting area, salsa tasting, tomato cooking demonstration, tour of a large demonstration tomato garden, several booths from local groups, and activities for kids. Locally grown produce, was one of the themes that several people talked about during the morning festival. Festival-goers heard Chef Jasper Mirabile, Jr. talk about using locally grown garlic and basil in his Italian recipes used at his south KC restaurant, Jasper's . Ginger Johnson, a master gardener with the new Heartland Harvest Garden at Powell Gardens in Kin

Saw Food Inc at Leawood theatre this evening -- plenty of open seats. The film wove several threads of the food business -- mass production, diminishing farmer control of production, heavy emphasis on meat production and corn, impact on health of Americans -- to tell an important story that big business does not have the interest of consumers or the environment in mind. This is a must see for those just learning about trends in consumption and food growing. I especially liked hearing a woman "TSK" loudly eight rows back reacting to comments from a woman chicken grower in the film discuss conditions in a chicken tunnel. The film focused on Monsanto's wrath tracking a seed cleaner who assisted farmers recover seeds for the next season's planting. The segment in the film reminded me of a solid article on the same topic that featured small farm businesses in Pilot Grove, Missouri, where my mom's side of the family hails from. See "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear&q

Jane and I participated in the Kansas City Urban Farms and Gardens Tour on Sunday, June 28, 2009. The tour included a week of activities – educational, food tasting, and other activities to inspire healthy food advocates. We visited three sites – Harvesters food bank 's demonstration garden at 3801 Topping Ave (that's where I work!); Juniper Gardens at 1st and Richmond in Kansas City, Kansas; and Hun's Family Garden , 4730 Metropolitan Ave also in Kansas City, Kansas. At Harvesters food bank's demonstration garden we saw how volunteers had planted a wide variety of plants to show food bank visitors alternatives for growing their own food. The tour of Juniper Gardens started at the place where makeshift sheds and offices were set up on a recovered housing development land. The land was situated on the bluff over the Kansas River. If you look east from the community garden you can see the profile of downtown Kansas City. There were several large garden plots that were p

This annual event was sponsored by the Non-Profit Technology Network and was attended by 1400 non-profit technology, communications, fundraising workers and consultants. The conference included a full-range of sessions on leadership, staffing, media, technology products, communications, fundraising, among others. Representatives from a large number of non-profits and community organizations were there – energy policy, health services, food banks, education services, advocacy groups, disaster relief and services, child and women’s services. Consultants from a number of technology companies were present – web hosting, software development, content management systems (CMS), constituent relations management (CRM), public relations, and fundraising. I attended sessions on how a non-profit organization can explore social media technology like blogging, CMS systems, video and audio podcasting. Keynote speakers included Clay Shirky , author of Here Comes Everybody and professor at New York U

A group of 30 people from Harvesters and area food agencies traveled to Jefferson City for Harvesters’ Advocacy Day. The group met up with other food bank workers and agencies from Missouri food banks. We started with a short meeting hearing from Rep. Bob Nance, a Republican author of legislation to increase supplemental food stamp assistance for elderly. Bob Nance encouraged workers in food banks to continue serving a vital community need – providing emergency food aid. Brian Colby with the Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance addressed the food bank group. He emphasized that food banks are on the front line of the economic downturn by focusing on the safety net of food assistance. He noted that food stamps provide an economic benefit to local communities by injecting funds into people’s hands to purchase food. The group heard from Jan with the Ozarks Food Bank and Karen Haren with Harvesters. After the brief gathering, individuals were invited to visit with legislators. I had four

“Lost your job” and “you make too much money for social security.” These are some of the comments I heard over the cubicle wall as Julie interviewed a client for the Hunger in America study today at the Samaritan Center in Clinton, Missouri. A woman was elaborating on her situation during some of the questions about her household’s income, food, and health condition. The woman was frustrated with her situation “trying to get disability insurance and wasted a lot of time and money in Warrensburg and Kansas City.” The building is an old single story building in the older part of Clinton with patterned-covered wallboard and a drop ceiling. Clients are able to visit the pantry once a month. They come in and schedule the next month’s visit, then go through the pantry. Conducting interviews involves a fair amount of waiting as clients come through for food. A random sample selects every fourth client today based on the estimate of the number of people seeking food. The goal is to get 10-

The International Food Aid Conference took place on April 6, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. This was truly a unique opportunity to attend a conference with 30 countries represented without leaving my hometown. On the first day of the conference, I attended the "United Nations Association Symposium on Food Security." The symposium was organized by the Greater Kansas City United Nations Association and was free and open to the public. The symposium was organized by the KC chapter of United Nations Organization. It’s an opportunity for advocacy as Jay Sjerven, president of the organization, highlighted the profile of food prices and the impact on poor people. There were four industry experts on the panel. Tony Hall, former US congressman from Dayton, Ohio , US Ambassador to the UN, and author of Changing the Face of Hunger (http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Face-Hunger-Conservatives-Republicans/dp/0849918693/ref=ed_oe_p), explained how a 1984 trip to Ethiopia transformed his p