The last full service grocery store for miles surrounding 31st & Prospect closed its doors last week, plunging thousands of poor and Black folks further into an already existing food desert. But rather than waiting on City Hall for a solution, The People have decided to fight back.
Today, The Kansas City Defender, KC Black Urban Growers, the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Association, and every major Black farm in the KC metro, are uniting to launch the Hamer Free Food Program, a first-of-its-kind Black-led mutual aid program that distributes fresh produce from Black farms straight to Black families within a one mile radius of 31st and Prospect at ZERO COST.
What is the Hamer Free Food Program?
Named in honor of Fannie Lou Hamer, often heralded for her Black liberation & civil rights activism, she is less known for her pioneering role in founding the Freedom Farm Cooperative in 1969.
The Hamer Free Food Program purchases produce directly from Black farms including: Young Family Farm KC, Global One Urban Farming, Sankara Farm, Ophelia’s Blue Vine Farm, and Pearl Family Farm, and the prgoram is coordinated by KC Black Urban Growers, Ivanhoe, and The Defender…