By SALINA POST
Michelle Coats, Mobility Manager for North Central Kansas and Daniel Craig, Cancer Outreach Coordinator at Tammy Walker Cancer Center, presented at the Kansas Local Food Summit in Wichita on August 28 on efforts in Saline County to leverage funding to address food bank access and safety at the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank.
Their presentation highlighted grant funded initiatives that expanded the community garden, funded site plan development, solar lighting, car and bike parking improvements, and sidewalks connecting to the local business corridor and public transportation.
Craig said events like the Kansas Local Foods Summit allows organizations, like Live Well Saline County, to network and share ideas.
"Events like this provide the opportunity for us to share with professionals across the state the work that we're doing, and we also get to learn from other communities and see the types of projects that they're working on, and if there's opportunities to partner," Craig said.
The summit also gives organizations a platform to reach potential funders.
"There's a lot of local and statewide funders that attend events like this, and so it's great for them to hear the types of work that we're doing, and so I think just creating partnerships and potential collaborations is a great opportunity," Craig said.
K-State Research and Extension with support from many state agencies including the Kansas Health Foundation, From The Land of Kansas, North Central SARE, and Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center put on the Kansas Local Food Summit. It was attended by local producers, public health professionals, city/county staff members, university staff members, and farmer’s market vendors from the across the state of Kansas.
The Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank community garden was revitalized through a project that began in 2017. Dane G. Hansen Foundation and the Greater Salina Community Foundation held a series of “Strategic Doing” meetings that guided Saline County residents through a quick and sophisticated process of prioritizing, planning and implementing (or “doing”) community improvement projects.
Local foods was one of the top priorities identified and revitalization of the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank community garden was the project selected. A Local Foods planning committee worked with the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank to draw up plans for the revitalized community garden and through a series of grants and sponsorships from over 20 agencies.
The project was completed in 2021 and additional enhancements to the garden continue to be made. The Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank currently has five handicapped accessible garden beds, 27-community garden raised beds, a children’s garden for neighborhood kids, and a Master Gardener’s section raising produce for the Food Bank & running vegetable trails for K-State Extension.
Following the completion of the community garden revitalization program Live Well Saline County, a local health and wellness coalition, received a four-year $500,000 Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant initiative from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. Tammy Walker Cancer Center was the designated fiscal agent for the grant and Daniel Craig who was the lead grant writer was selected to be the project manager.
Live Well Saline County worked with the Pathways to A Healthy Kansas technical assistance providers and through a series of community surveys identified enhancing safety and access at the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank as the priority project for the grant. The Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank conducted interviews with clients and three projects emerged based on that feedback.
The first was development of a site plan and addition of solar lighting that was supported through a $45,288 implementation grant. The second project was a sidewalk that connects the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank to the Broadway business corridor including links to two City Go Bus stops that was supported through a $100,000 implementation grant and additional matching funding by the City of Salina.
The third project which will be starting soon is the addition of 12 additional parking spaces and six bike racks which was supported by a $100,000 implementation grant and matching funding from several sponsors and donors. In total $245,288 of the Pathways funding was allocated to the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank projects.
Live Well Saline County is planning a community celebration event to highlight the initiatives at the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank. The event will be held this fall once the parking lot project at the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank is complete and will serve as a celebration of the 15th anniversary of Live Well Saline County.
Live Well Saline County is currently helping to support a $20,000 Chronic Disease Risk Reduction grant from the Kansas Department of Health & Environment that was received by the Tammy Walker Cancer Center.
The coalition is also working through a strategic planning process and will be adding mental health and tobacco prevention/cessation as new focus areas.
The coalition recently developed a new vision statement: Liveable Healthy Saline County and mission statement: Engaging community partners to cultivate a holistic approach to well-being in Saline County.