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Students, staff and community partners broke ground Tuesday afternoon on a new learning farm at DeLaSalle Education Center.
The school has a long-term vision of becoming one of the leading urban farming schools in Kansas City. Students will build the farm, grow the food and share it with the student body and community.
It is a sustainable solution, and a life skill, aimed to combat food insecurity and build trade.
“When you come out here in a year, whatever this has transformed into will be thanks to this group right here,” said Theo Bunch, executive director of Cornerstones of Care’s vocational program, Build Trybe.
Right now, the piece of land on the school’s property is empty. But students and staff are inviting the public to imagine with them. They see fresh produce, chicken coops, farmer’s markets, outdoor eateries, and an orchard.
The possibilities are endless, and the students are the engineers.
“Once we get all, like the soil right and everything, we can like start planting some good vegetables and stuff. I’m excited for it,” said Tyler Fears, a junior at DeLaSalle. “I’m interested in trades. I like to build — hands-on.”
It will be a space that keeps on giving where education and the needs of the community can meet.
“Taking the food we produce, opening up farmer’s markets and selling them at places. Maybe even having a farmer’s market occur right here in our grounds where we bring people in from the community who don’t have access to healthy food,” said Executive Director of DeLaSalle Education Center, Sean Stalling. “We know SNAP benefits about to be cut, and you have that happening. This is an opportunity to really instill in our students a sense of that food sovereignty.”
One in seven people in the metro area are food insecure, according to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.
“80% of our cost of healthcare is driven by what we call “social drivers of health,” and food is one of those things,” said BCBSKC’S Director of Community Health, Rebecca Anderson. “People really are struggling day to day with the cost of food and just being able to get access to food, period. So a project like this, I think it’s just so beautiful that you’re actually teaching people how to grow the food so that you don’t have to go to the store.”
Students will learn with the guidance of community partners like Cornerstones of Care, Kansas City Community Gardens, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, and local architecture firms. From culinary students to those in vocational studies, everyone on the farm will have a role to play.
“It is authentically a part of who we will be as a school,” said Stalling.
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