SAVE URBAVORE & Compost Collective KC!

URBAVORE Urban Farm & Compost Collective KC are two of Kansas City's leading environmental businesses deeply committed to climate resilience, regenerative agriculture, and local food security. For many years, URBAVORE (KC's largest & longest-standing urban farm) has been a leader in urban agriculture as well as a trailblazer in the larger sustainability movement. Their sister business Compost Collective KC is the ONLY curbside food-waste service in the metro, and together they have created a blueprint for successful community-scale composting that directly addresses climate initiatives laid out in KC's Climate Protection & Resiliency Plan.

Their vision for community food systems fueled by community food waste is something unique to Kansas City, and something that other municipalities will likely adopt nationwide. They make KC PROUD and provide a living, GROWING example of what a climate-positive future could look like in every neighborhood across America!

Farmers Brooke & Dan need your support to raise significant funds to fight the injustices pinned against them by the City of KCMO. In May of 2023, they were issued four hefty violations that threaten their livelihood and the climate resilience of our entire metro area. You can see a detailed explanation of these violations with supporting documentation at https://www.saveurbavore.com.

Many months of advocacy, bureaucracy, legal council, community engagement, public hearings, and personal stress have transpired in the last ten months. Thousands of petition signatures have been gathered in support of URBAVORE, and 1063 Letters of Support were sent to City Leaders to no avail. The larger community and the majority of the neighborhood have made their voices heard. Not only do they want to see these issues resolved, but they would like to see the City support URBAVORE & Compost Collective with funding & partnerships.

To date, URBAVORE & their supporters have not been successful in their quest for justice. The next hurdle for URBAVORE requires significant dollars towards the professional services needed for a Master Plan Development application. Architectural gurus and local legends, BNIM, will be assisting URBAVORE (at a significant DISCOUNT) to prepare this complex & costly application.

WE MUST RAISE FUNDS for their services so that we can continue to move forward in having The City Planning Commission, the City Council, and OF COURSE our neighbors APPROVE this plan, and allow us to get back to our lives, and the good work we have provided to KC for so many years.

*Yes, you read that right — these funds will only go towards the services needed for the application — no funds toward actually building the vision laid out in the plan. Though there is no guarantee that the application will pass, we are already gearing up for a broad advocacy and community engagement campaign to make sure that everyone is on-board! *We value our neighbors and want to sustain their support.

I know, I know....it seems risky and our livelihood is at stake! The STUPIDITY of spending tens-of-thousands on a plan that may not get approval is not lost on us, but we've been left with no choice. We must take the only path forward available to us (which comes with lots of denial & painful acceptance on our part)...lol.

Silver Lining:

If we raise the funds and the plan passes, we will be perfectly positioned to not only continue the good work we do now (without further threat of harassment) but we will be approved to evolve our vision in ways that will have an INCREDIBLY POSITIVE IMPACT on our neighborhood, and our larger community.

Our plan is robust and bio-fabulous and includes (but is not limited to) the following projects with an array of potential partners:

Exciting! In realistic terms it's all "pie in the sky" but we figure as long as we are forced to make a "Master Plan"with a very high price tag, we might as well DREAM BIG! (After all, that's how it all started... one big dream.)

In Conclusion:

URBAVORE & Compost Collective (Brooke, Dan, the Emilys, Kaiser, Tittles, Coco, Carrie, Reno, Mickey, Maggie, Angie, Sam, Jill, Reid, Romi, Brie, Percy, and Sol) want to extend a BIG THANK YOU for your on-going love and support. It's been a rocky road y'all, but if anything has kept us going, it's the LOVE of our KC Community.

Spread the good dirt!

xoxo