Old Friends and New Connections at the 2026 Urban Grown Tour

Posted on September 16, 2026 by Alicia Alferman

Last Sunday the Urban Grown Tour returned to the KC metro with a new date, new sites, new episodes of the companion podcast, Urban Grown Stories, and rave reviews! Accompanied by amazing weather, this year’s tour featured 15 sites, including 6 NEW sites not on the tour last year. This winning combo of fresh spaces with old favorites gave attendees a glimpse of the diversity in KC’s local food system and fostered new connections with local growers. 

Greeting a guest at Bread & Roses Farm.
Kansas City Urban Farm Co-op.

This year’s tour came with a few changes, mostly the date, but also the order of events. The weekend kicked off with the Urban Grown Tour on Sunday, followed by the Urban Grown Policy Tour on Monday. We welcomed the Kansas City community into some of the many beautiful growing spaces throughout the city Sunday morning and this year the weather cooperated with us! Folks got to explore the spaces and engage with growers at all the sites, but some provided unique offerings including Farm Stands, Urban Grown Tour Discounts, Farm Cat Bingo, and even pizza. It was absolutely fantastic to see the diverse ways all the growers strengthen KC’s food system and support their communities.  

A group of New Roots farmers and staff visiting Young Family Farm.

A particular highlight of the day was seeing farmers from Cultivate KC’s New Roots program take the tour and get the opportunity to see the way other growers in Kansas City operate and maintain their spaces. Farming is a hard job and doesn’t leave a lot of time to visit other farms and gardens let alone interact and ask questions of other farmers, so this was an especially fruitful opportunity, not just for the New Roots farmers but for site hosts as well.  

New Roots farmers weren’t the only ones impressed with the Urban Grown Tour. Mid-day the Cultivate KC Staff received a glowing review of the tour from attendee Betty Greer who said, “It was a wonderful experience, very educational and fun. Great people. Weather was perfect. Plan on doing this every year.” 

Urban Grown Policy Tour visiting East High School.

On Monday afternoon, the Urban Grown Policy Tour toured two sites, one in Kansas (KC Farm School) and one in Missouri (East High School) to connect growers and local, state, and federal policy makers. This year’s Urban Grown Policy Tour was co-hosted by Cultivate KC and the Urban Food Systems Symposium. These policy-focused tours are incredibly important opportunities for growers to speak directly to policy makers and community leaders about specific challenges they face and the ways they can be supported.  

The Urban Grown Tour wasn’t the only thing that got an update this year. Six NEW episodes of the companion podcast, Urban Grown Stories, debuted late Friday and this year… they have video! Learn more about all of the sites featured on the 2025 & 2026 Urban Grown Tour with the Urban Grown Stories Podcast.

Podcast episodes are now available on: Spotify, Apple, and  Youtube!

We want to thank all of the returning and new farms and gardens on the Urban Grown Tour for being amazing hosts and community members but also for opening up and sharing their journey through the urban ag. community.  

If you attended this year’s Urban Grown Tour, THANK YOU! We are grateful for your support of our local food system. 

TAKE THE URBAN GROWN TOUR EXIT SURVEY

The Urban Grown Tour is the largest volunteer lift we have here at Cultivate KC so big shout out to everyone who volunteered for this event. We quite simply couldn’t do it without you! 

And lastly, THANK YOU to our Urban Grown Tour Sponsors!

This project is supported in part by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund.

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