With the dedicated support of our grower members, KSCGA was able to continue our work in 2024 in networking and support while building our data management capacity needed for our long-anticipated grower/market directory (rollout anticipated January 2025). With new grant funding and, again, growing membership contribution support, 2025 promises to be a year of enhanced programming, visibility, and reach.
We continue to work on the, yes, long-anticipated Kansas Grower/Network Directory—with rollout for the Directory anticipated at our January 10 2025 Annual Meeting. With the extent of our grower data and complexities in the multiple layers of data and search fields, the Directory has been an admittedly consuming effort. We’re now in the final stages of working out some lingering details—with an in-progress user Directory showing remarkable potential in connecting growers and growers with markets (and vice versa) across our state. Watch for more on this in January 2025.
KSCGA continues to work with regional partners in developing individual and collective cultivation and sales. Now with a 2024-25 Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG), we’ll be ramping up our networking and support for current and new regional partners in the year ahead.
KSCGA is formally partnering with grant project efforts with K-State Extension and Growing Growers under a three-year Beginning Farmers/Ranchers Development Project (BFRDP) program. We’ll be taking a primary role in supporting and connecting new growers through networking and subsidized access to training activities.
KSCGA is also working with Kansas Department of Education under their own Specialty Crop Block Grant programming to open up local/regional produce supply connections among growers and schools across the state. We’ll be involved in their Specialty Crop orientation sessions in 2025. Look for details and registration info soon.
Your memberships are a big part of our organizational vitality. Please take a moment to join or renew your membership today. We look forward to working with our growers in 2025—and beyond.