Foundation Journal

What a difference a year makes! After two years of financial difficulty which forced the community radio station to downsize the number of paid staff members, KKFI 90.1 FM has rebounded with some encouraging developments. The station worked for years to gain recognition for its strong community and education direction by applying for a federally-funded PTFP grant. The persistent focus on community action and local programming paid off with a $75,000 matching grant to replace the station's original transmitter. Along with the transmitter news, the station won kudos by it's selection as the host broadcaster for the 2011 Homelessness Marathon , a nationwide radio broadcast to 140 radio stations and 25 television channels. KKFI also was selected as the host for the 2011 Grassroots Radio Conference , which focuses on radio producers, programmers, and developers. KKFI is a place Kansas City area community organizations come to talk about their programs and activities. Engaging...

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...