Food Justice Archives – The Kansas City Defender

KC Defender & Urban League Join Forces: People’s Free Food Program Delivers to 100+ Black Families Across KC Metro

By Ryan S. ● Mutual Aid & Community Programs ● November 18, 2025

This weekend, the KC Defender and Urban League delivered fresh food to over 100 Black families across Kansas City, sourced from the city’s last remaining full-service Black owned grocery store, to circulate our dollars back into our community. Each box included the KC Defender’s latest edition with investigative reporting, practical resources, and political education.

Latest in Food Justice

FOOD IS FREEDOM: Hamer Program & Black KC Farmers Continue Free Food Deliveries as SNAP Cuts Loom

By Ryan S. ● Agriculture ● October 29, 2025

The evening the food boxes arrived, a Black neighbor wept.

Mass of KC Black Youth & Leaders Rally in Force to Build Hamer Free Food Program

By Ryan S. ● Mutual Aid & Community Programs ● September 14, 2025

In the wake of Sun Fresh’s closure and the deepening food apartheid along Kansas City’s Prospect corridor, the Black community responded with power. The Hamer Free Food Program—named for revolutionary freedom fighter Fannie Lou Hamer—has officially launched, with more than 60 volunteers joining Farm Days to grow, harvest, and deliver free produce directly from Black farms to Black families.

KC’S BLACK FARMS UNITE: Hamer Free Food Program Launches Amid Growing Food Apartheid

By KC Defender Staff ● Mutual Aid & Community Programs ● August 19, 2025

The KC Defender, KC Black Urban Growers, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Association, and every Black farm in the KC metro are launching the Hamer Free Food Program. Free CSA boxes from Black farms will reach elders and families near 31st and Prospect after Sun Fresh’s closure. Volunteer, donate, or partner to scale it.

Thousands of Black KC Residents Plunged into Food Desert as Sun Fresh Shutters

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● August 12, 2025

Sun Fresh, the last full-service grocery store for miles around 31st & Prospect, has closed, leaving thousands of Black Kansas Citians in a food desert. City Hall found $800 million for a new jail, but not enough to keep bread and baby formula on the shelf.

KC Defender Distributes $5000 to Black People on 31st & Prospect & Happy Foods

By Ryan S. ● Defender People's Programs ● June 25, 2025

We gave $5,000 in no-strings-attached cash to Black people at 31st & Prospect as a declaration that our people deserve love, not surveillance. Resources, not cages. In a city built to crush our joy, we chose to flood it with life.

TOWN HALL: Kansas City’s Crisis of Black Food, Land & Survival — And How We Fight Back

By KC Defender Staff ● Agriculture ● March 20, 2025

Kansas City’s Black farmers and urban growers are leading the fight for food sovereignty. Join The KC Defender and The Kansas City Call for an urgent Town Hall to strategize, organize, and take action.

Ivanhoe Farmers Market Turns to Community as the U.S. Government Wages War on Black Farmers

By Mili Mansaray, Ryan S. & Lynnie Holl ● Justice ● February 27, 2025

The Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council vows to keep its farmers market alive after the USDA slashed its funding, underscoring the importance of collective action in the face of fascist crackdowns on Black empowerment programs.

Elon Musk & DOGE Slash Funding for Major Black KC Neighborhood Councils

By Ryan S. ● Kansas City ● February 17, 2025

Elon Musk & DOGE are targeting one of Kansas City’s most prominent Black-led neighborhood councils—slashing a federal grant and threatening a vital food sovereignty movement.

KC Defender Hosts “Winter Grocery Buyout,” Distributes Over $5000 to Black Families at Sunfresh on Prospect

By KC Defender Staff ● Mutual Aid & Community Programs ● January 12, 2025

The Defender’s Winter Grocery Buyout, in partnership with Urban League of KC, served the people through revolutionary mutual aid at Black-owned Sunfresh. This intervention provided direct material support to our people while disrupting the criminalizing narratives about our community.