KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the last six months, you may have eaten produce grown by Kansas City veterans.
There is a new program teaching Kansas City veterans how to grow food as a life skill and be a part of the agriculture workforce.
With time and patience, green leaves pop up in rows.
“This is genovese basil,” said Ryan Foster with Chow Hall Farms.
Foster is working to harvest 20 pounds of it. The basil is planted in a shipping container that was turned into a hydroponic farm off of 88th Street and Troost Avenue.
“It provides confidence that we are doing it the right way, and the things they are teaching us are what’s supposed to happen,” Foster said.
Growing stalks of varying towering mushrooms and 800 basil sprigs, Foster didn’t start out as an urban farmer, but as a Marine in Iraq.
“The more I work with plants and produce, it just calms that part of me that I could never get calmed,” he said.
Foster said he later experienced homelessness and found help through a veterans program.
“It was a hard time, it was a real hard time,” he said. “A lot of my life I’ve kind of been a jerk, I’ve been that person who gets frustrated way too easily. It feels to me, almost like growing produce, is a justification for all the bad I’ve done. I’m bringing back good, I’m doing good by the earth, by the world."
Veterans Community Project (VCP) and the University of Missouri–Kansas City are helping veterans like Foster learn how to grow produce, and are paid a $4,000-yearly stipend to do it.
The program, which is headed by UMKC's director of research and institute programs Angie Cottrell, is funded through grants.
Cottrell was able to secure a $60,000 grant for UMKC from the Kauffman Foundation entrepreneurship program and a $600,000 grant from USDA.
The operation is an educational training program that pulls veterans from VCP and around the Kansas City metro area. Thirteen veterans are trained for three months, learning therapy, farming and entrepreneurship skills.
“It makes my heart very happy. I’m a daughter of a U.S. veteran myself,” Cottrell said. “I hope they will use what we’ve taught them to create their own farms, whether its small size or warehouse size, or they use that skill set to go out to the workforce and find employment for themselves.”
Since the program's inception, six veterans have gotten agriculture-related jobs.
Cottrell says it already benefits Kansas Citians.
“We have a few restaurants that have become regular customers,” she said.
Enzo Bistro and Wine Bar and Ragazza Food & Wine chefs have used their fresh mushrooms and basil in dishes, even crediting Chow Hall Farms on menus.
“It’s fresh, you can’t get it any fresher. (It's) for sure yummy, it's delicious,” said Tina Warford with Ragazza.
The profits go back to the program to give other veterans a chance to learn the trade.
“Working the farm, having a bit of the routine, smelling the amazing basil when we harvest, all of those things bring joy, structure and passion,” Cottrell said.
A life skill one can continuously profit from.
“It was time to go after what I wanted to, my wife and I purchased a farm in Adrian, Missouri,” said Foster.
Produce from the veterans are available at the Everyday Produce Market near West 73rd Street and Wornall Road.
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