'It was a huge, huge loss': New hail relief fund helps Wyandotte County farmers rebuild

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — KSHB 41 anchor/reporter JuYeon Kim covers agricultural issues and the fentanyl crisis. Share your story idea with JuYeon.

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A new hail relief fund is helping producers in Wyandotte County rebuild after a hailstorm blew through the area in mid-August.

Along with homes and businesses, many local farms in Kansas City, Kansas, were impacted. Susan Welsh, owner of Grasshopper Urban Farm, saw over 50% of her crops destroyed.

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“I was stunned, quite honestly. I’ve never seen this kind of damage,” Welsh said.

Sometimes in life, one faces a major fork in the road. Welsh had to make a big decision last month when the storm hit: give up or rebuild.

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“Honestly, I’m working on my mental health. Really, any of the farmers that got hit, it’s a hard, hard blow,” Welsh said. “At that point, I had already had a rough season to begin with. When I saw that, I was really questioning: What am I doing?”

To make matters worse, the extreme heat that came after the storm further damaged her fall crops that are now exposed to the sun. Most of her hard labor is now headed for compost, not the market.

“I try not to think too much about it. Because it was so devastating that when I sit down and do my final numbers for the year, I’ll really see what it looks like,” Welsh said.

In the weeks after, the nonprofit Cultivate Kansas City reached out to KSHB 41 to flag a new relief fund for Wyandotte County farmers that was to launch.

Cultivate KC partnered with the American Farmland Trust to give away $10,000 in grants to affected producers. Fifteen farms applied for the Hail Relief Fund within the first two hours of the application launching.

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“Up to $1,000 just to provide some of that immediate relief. Getting fall plants and seeds in the ground, recovering some of that lost income to be able to replace high tunnel plastic or buy plants and seeds for the spring,” said Ami Freeberg, director of strategy and partnerships at Cultivate KC.

A total of 10 farms were chosen for the first round, including Welsh.

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“It was a breath of relief to know that I was going to get the grant," she said. "It will help tremendously for purchasing seeds for next year, which I’m already starting to make those plans."

The road to recovery will be anything but easy, but sometimes the journey makes all the difference.  

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“It’s a fight, it’s a fight for us to be able to sell," Welsh said. "So yeah, if they can just come out to the farmers markets and follow us on our social pages, that would be awesome."

Cultivate Kansas City is currently seeking additional funding to be able to support all applicants.

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