Blog with a special focus on Digital Divide, the Politics of Food, and Community Media in the Kansas City area.
Harvesters Food Bank Connects On Urban Farm Tour
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Noreen's Harvesters crew (left to right): Carlos, Maegan,
James, Josh, Noreen, Doug, and Matt
Harvesters employees took time out of their workday to learn about cooperative urban farms on Kansas City's east side. A light rain fell as Sasteh Mosley started the tour Wednesday, September 22 on the drive to the "Garden of Eden" farm just north of 27th and Prospect Avenue. Frequently we miss out on learning about alternative ventures like the farms on the tour because of our busy schedule working in the warehouse and offices at Harvesters. Today we got a good breakdown of the variety of urban farms on the tour.
I'm amazed at all the connections Mosley's group East Meets West of Troost bringing youth to jobs on the urban farms, meeting with neighborhood associations, engaging government agencies, as well as larger nonprofits with organizational depth and funding.
Mosley reflects on his family's connection and legacy to the neighborhood, adding that he still works as a US Navy veteran with the nearby American Legion post. "We don't have a bar; we've got a garden," suggesting the extent his community efforts have reached.
Sasteh Mosley (left) describes Sunflower seed plants to
James Worley and Noreen Zahner.
During a stop at the City Fresh farm operated by the Washington-Wheatley neighborhood association, Mosley talked about how East Meets West is working with at-risk youth, and he answered questions from the Harvesters workers. The low-income, well-established neighborhood association farm is organized such that multiple garden plots are established in the 120 foot by 120 foot space. Mosley shared how neighbors on the block look out for each other, preventing damage or theft in the garden. He joked how people might criticize someone for taking a melon before it was ripe, but suggesting that women in the 50's were more likely to take vegetables because they know the proper time to harvest.
Most importantly, Mosley pointed out that people and organizations developing the urban farms are much better served by being close to the neighbors and farms. Sasteh Mosley is not only a champion of the economic potential from farms for Eastsiders, but makes a deeply human connection between his neighbors and recovering the land where they reside.
Finally! The city of Lee's Summit, Missouri took a responsible approach to trash service by replacing an all-you-can-dump-with-no-free-recycling-option to a "volume-based" approach similar to the successful service used in Kansas City, Missouri. After the service is changed, then those residents who have paid $2.50 per month to trash companies like Deffenbaugh can rely on the new service for free recycling, plus get the satisfaction that waste will be reduced and recycling increased. ...the City Council directed city staff to issue the state-required two-year notice to all solid waste haulers providing services in the City that the City is considering implementation of a comprehensive, citywide, solid waste program. The program currently proposed by city staff includes volume-based pricing for residential trash service with unlimited, curbside recycling at no additional fee . Under this proposed program, residents would only pay for the amount of trash they discard ;...
I recently listened to a presentation on how to evaluate the costs and benefits to a public computer center program by a representative of the Colorado state library system. The expansive program has created 81 centers with public computers throughout the state with 5 full-time employees to maintain the program, including training for computer users. The program provides access to 450 desktop computers, 700 laptops, and has offered training for 10,000 computer users. An example of one of Colorado's public computer centers. While the presentation was focused on helping organizations track and evaluate their public computer programs, they revealed a tremendously helpful resource for low-income community members. A successful public computer center provides easy computer access and skills training, which is what the Colorado program set out to accomplish. Their focus is computer skills, workforce and employment services, as well as health education and English as a ...
You can help break the "digital divide" in Kansas City by joining a Digital Inclusion Town Hall this Friday, January 16 with local organizers from KC Digital Drive, Connecting for Good and the Kansas City Public Library. You'll need to register for the event . Friday, January 16, 2015 9:00am @ Central Library Continental breakfast provided Organizers of the 2014 Kansas City Digital Inclusion Summit — a first-of-its-kind event addressing troublesome gaps in residents’ access to computers and the Internet — return three months after that daylong gathering to deliver their official report. The October summit examined trends, discussed challenges and opportunities, spotlighted current inclusion efforts, and shared best practices. Since then civic leaders and other individuals and organizations have been exploring ways to bridge Kansas City's digital divide by providing better Internet access and quality tech education. The town hall meeting also features an announ...
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