A Productive First Season of MVP Workdays

Through a year of great change, as we transitioned from our Westport Commons Farm, the former homebase of our volunteer program, Cultivate KC was happy to still offer volunteer opportunities to our community and corporate partners. Starting in March, our Mobile Volunteer Program, affectionately termed MVP, rotated between nine metro farms every Friday morning from 9-11am. Over the course of the growing season, we accumulated 608 volunteer hours! We also held a few special MVP workdays at the Kauffman Stadium Fountain Gardens and the Troup Ave Educational Orchard. 

We want to extend a special thanks to the volunteers that made this season so successful and enjoyable. Our number one MVP, Sherri Gerdel, came to 15 of our workdays this year, including the very first one. She was an absolutely integral part of the program, bringing gardening expertise and an amazing attitude from anthills to hot weather. Another MVP, Chris Vieyra, started coming to MVP workdays later in the year, but still managed to make it to 6 events. He was also a huge help – most notably in helping to clear a large area of brush at Bread and Roses farm in an HGTV worthy makeover. On the corporate side, we want to extend a special thank you to Henderson Engineering for coming to volunteer with us on 4 separate occasions! We also held a few special MVP workdays at the Kauffman Stadium Fountain Gardens and the Troup Ave Educational Orchard. 

All in all, it’s been a great year. Here at Cultivate KC, we feel lucky to have a farming community that is willing to join in collaboration and support one another to make a program like this work.  

And a MASSIVE thank you to the farms who hosted us: 

• Young Family Farm 
• Ivanhoe Community Garden 
• Dirt Beast Farm 
• Bread and Roses Farm 
• Righteous Roots Community Garden 
• Longfellow Community Farm 
• George Washington Carver Farm 
• Global One Urban Farming 
• our own Juniper Gardens Training Farm

As we reflect on the past year, tally up the hours, and look through all the photos of these amazing farms and hardworking volunteers, we can’t wait to start planning MVP workdays next year. Pssst… there might be a few in January or February! 

Written by Emily Kovar, Cultivate KC Metro Farms and Food Systems Program Specialist.

P.S. We’d also like to send a big shout out to Emily Kovar, the heart and tireless dedication behind the pilot year of this program.