Antioch Urban Growers

Kansas City (North), Missouri

Project Description:

Antioch Urban Growers uses growing methods that include aquaponics, raised beds, organic growing and permaculture practices, composting through electrolysis and vermiculture. The market is hungry for goods, services, training and consulting in all of these projects. The organization offers fruit trees, bedding plants (including natives), small-space urban gardening solutions and vegetable production. Inside the greenhouse, grape vines provide cover for fig tree propagation and seedlings. They also raise small animals (goats and chickens) and bees.

In short, Antioch Urban Growers is dedicated to providing introductory training, hands-on participation and community co-ops using the different methods each participant might choose to pursue — from consumers to growers, from interested residents to community developers.

Project Goals:

• To realize a vision of sustainable living that not only focuses on community, but recognizes that we can't succeed without it.
• The effort is to: Do. Teach. Reward. Grow. Antioch Urban Growers offers seminars, mentoring, and consulting with a knowledgeable staff that is always available for counseling and public speaking.

Community Benefits and Lessons Learned:

• The organization works at the grass-roots level, with many volunteers and young people in summer job-placement programs.
• Antioch Urban Growers transformed an abandoned nursery center and junkyard, which had become a 10-acre neighborhood eyesore, into a thriving business.
• In reaching out to its neighbors, the organization has found that the potential for a grass-roots movement already exists. Provide it a place to grow, and it will.

Funding Sources and Partnerships:

At this time, Antioch Urban Growers is nearly debt-free. The business is owned solely by Mark Samborski. Its partnerships have come through personal relationships, volunteers, interested persons and concerned individuals, and kids.

Contact Information:

Antioch Urban Growers
2727 NE 44th Street, Kansas City, MO 64117
816-699-4953
antiochurbangrowers.com