Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Carpenter.
Hi Ben, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
New Roots, for those who are unfamiliar, started in 2008 as a 50/50 partnership between Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas and Cultivate KC. It has operated since then at Juniper Gardens Training Farm, in Northeast KCK, as a 4 year training program for refugees and immigrants who want to start farm businesses in the Kansas City Metro. The program has graduated 46 families, 34 of whom are still operating farm businesses around the city. We provide training on everything from season extension to soil management, to marketing vegetables to American consumers, and financial recordkeeping. If you’ve been to a farmers market in Kansas City, you have likely walked past (or maybe bought some greens!) from a New Roots farmer-in-training or graduate. We have the goals of 1) providing language access to USDA resources available to the general public, but which functionally don’t exist if you don’t speak English, 2) Farmer empowerment through application of existing agricultural skills and leadership development 3) creation of profitable farm businesses 4) sustainable land management 5) integration of immigrant and refugee communities in to the rich and diverse social fabric of Kansas City.
in 2022 I got a position with New Roots teaching the English for Farming classes and working with the farmer trainers to put their technical expertise into a formalized adult curriculum, which we call Farm Class. I had never worked with refugees or immigrants before in such a direct way, and didn’t expect to stick around very long. However, after getting to know the farmers at Juniper Gardens Training Farm and learning more about the program’s history, I was hooked. Here was a program that put land and capital in the hands of those who’ve had those things taken from them, and who were empowered to use those resources to sustainably manage small farm businesses that benefited their communities and Kansas City food system more broadly. I thought, “this is big. This is something that I can really get behind.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The New Roots program has been around for 17 years, and over that time has seen a lot of changes. We work specifically with immigrant and refugees who would like to start farm businesses in the Kansas City Metro, and help them incubate those businesses into profitability. It’s a unique program that has a lot of pieces exposed to current events. This is true of most non-profits, but everything from farm policy, to immigration policy, to local land policy, recessions, pandemics, have all had an impact on the program that have required the staff to be nimble and resourceful. The farmers themselves already have adaptability at the top of their list of skills, so it’s made navigating challenges like cuts in federal funding, easier to navigate as a team. This past season for example, Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas had to pull out of the 17 year partnership as a result of federal funding for refugee and immigrant services taking severe cuts. The remaining staff at Juniper Gardens are hardy though, and through trusting, good faith relationships with the growers on site we are piecing together a future that works for everyone.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I moved to Kansas City from Rochester, NY in 2015, after moving here for a girl I met in AmeriCorps out in California. I had never been to Kansas City before, and landing in Strawberry Hill, came to love it immediately. There’s a sense of civic pride here I hadn’t experienced elsewhere, as well as a sense that people took their role in building community seriously.
I worked at a number of non-profits, getting a feel for what sort of work in which I wanted to build a career. My path spanned a few different flavors of service, driving trucks and hosting food drives for Harvesters, teaching classes on bike mechanics for BikeWalk KC. Then I joined Bridging the Gap, where I planted trees and worked on the urban forest canopy. The work revealed a siloization between organizations that focused on the environment, and organizations that focused more on social issues, and this separation fascinated me. I moved away a couple years for grad school in Syracuse, NY, with focus that can be broadly summarized as environmental sociology. My research helped me better understand where that disconnect came from, and how I might be able to navigate that in my professional life.
When I moved back to Kansas City I rejoined Bridging the Gap and helped build out workforce development curriculum for folks hoping to get into the tree care industry. I also helped design and implement their home energy conservation program focused on reducing energy bills in low-income households. This led to more experiences working at the intersection of human and natural systems, which is when I first came to the New Roots program.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Over 17 years, the New Roots program has been shaped by many many hands. Some of the best people on the planet have passed through Juniper Gardens either as staff with Catholic Charities, Cultivate KC, or as farmers in training. Many of them are still actively engaged, as friends or supporters, which is what makes New Roots such a resilient program– a broad a deep network of people who have been impacted by the work at Juniper Gardens Training Farm and stay connected with the community. I joke a lot that Juniper has evolved far beyond anything that can easily be summed up as just an urban farm– it’s a place where people from around the world find belonging, empowerment, respect, and control over their food system, in a time when those things are sometimes hard to find.
Pricing:
- Farm Share CSA (Vegetable Subscription): ~$30/ week for weekly boxes of fresh vegetables from May-October
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cultivatekc.org/new-roots/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newrootskc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newrootsforrefugees
