Neighbors and teenagers are growing food in a Kansas City, Kansas garden

In the Douglass/Sumner neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, Build WyCo and St. Peter CME Church are tending a garden that residents actually eat from, the Kansas Leadership Center Journal reported on October 21, 2026. A Hunger Free Kansas Action Project grant paid to plant 11 raised beds that were already at Boulevard Lofts, an affordable and mixed-income building, plus a young orchard. The beds hold tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, squash, zucchini, tomatillos, and herbs.

The Merc Co+op, about a mile away, closed in late December, and the nearest grocery is a drive. Church member Karen Daniels said the neighborhood had been asked to get by on dollar stores. After the church lost a food-pantry contract, leaders looked for another way to offer fresh food and found the unused beds down the street. About 15 young volunteers and 10 adults now help. Daniels said the youth were unsure at first and then proud to take food home. LaCherish Thompson of Build WyCo said harvested vegetables rarely sit. The first season brought weeds, vines, and squash bugs. This year the planting is more deliberate, a stove in the building's kitchen may host meals later, and the group is working with the University of Kansas Medical Center's Food is Medicine program. The garden feeds the people who tend it. It does not replace a grocery store.