Summer Lettuce Project at JGTF
RELAUNCH of the Urban Agriculture Tool Library
Cultivate KC staff has spent the past year wading through the trials and tribulations of app development, moving locations, researching a new platform, and uploading all our tool data. We’re now excited to announce the relaunch of our Urban Agriculture Tool Library now located at the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Center.
The library started as a UAIP grant initiative, and through additional funding from MARC Solid Waste Management District, Accenture, KC Chamber of Commerce Centurions, and ReBuild KC, we have been able to expand the tools offered. This library is one way Cultivate KC participates in strengthening our community, building neighborhood resilience, and promoting a culture of sharing.
moving the tool library container into place.
What is a Tool Library?
Much like the public libraries in Kansas City, community members can borrow from a tool library using an established lending process. Members borrow items for free for a limited amount of time so that everyone in the community can have equal access to this resource. Some benefits of this model include:
- Increasing access to tools while reducing financial stress
- Keeping specialized tools with limited use cases out of landfills
- Promoting sharing and an attitude of abundance in the community
- Creating opportunities for skill sharing and training
You and some friends perhaps have a 100-foot row of sweet potatoes- or multiple rows- to harvest. You don’t want to buy a bunch of potato forks or broad forks to get the job done. You can check them out from the library, and everyone can dig. More digging, more potatoes, more FUN! Need some concrete mixed for a trellis post or want to mix up a custom soil blend? Don’t turn it around and around with a shovel in a wheelbarrow. Check out a barrel mixer!
beginning to get the tools organized.
We’d like to thank the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council for hosting our tool library at the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Center located at 3700 Woodland Ave., KCMO. The library, now managed through the web-based Lend Engine platform, currently has around 60 different types of tools. We will be looking to expand it in the future and are open to suggestions on tools we should be on the lookout for.
VISIT HERE, sign up to become a member, and GET GROWING.
