This year’s Gathering host home has a rich history. Completed in 2007, the house was custom built utilizing artifacts collected from the world travels of the original homeowners. Each heirloom, brought together, creates an eclectic, yet harmonious, experience to be savored.
In many ways this reflects our New Roots for Refugees program. Refugee families come to the United States bringing with them trades and farming techniques of their culture. They offer produce indigenous to their native countries blended with local foods to create an appetizing fare for all to enjoy.
Come taste what’s cooking!
Join us for a ladies event, an evening celebrating the season’s harvest, in support of Catholic Charities Foundation of Northeast Kansas and the New Roots for Refugees program.
Tuesday, September 26
6:30pm – 9:30pm
11517 Pawnee Circle
Leawood, KS 66211
Delectable offerings by Tannin Wine Bar & Kitchen using locally grown produce provided by the New Roots for Refugees‘ farmers.
Visit The Gathering page for more information and to register for the event.
New Roots for Refugees Background
Catholic Charities, in partnership with Cultivate KC, began New Roots for Refugees, a program to help refugees put down new roots. When refugees are forced to flee their countries, they arrive in the United States with few resources. They have left behind relatives and friends, their home, and their jobs. What they bring with them, however, is often a great deal of agricultural expertise.
The New Roots program builds on the strengths and experience that the refugees already possess, helping them to start small farm businesses growing and selling vegetables. Farming is a familiar livelihood that offers the opportunity for self-sufficiency, healthy food for their families, extra income, and a way to contribute to their new communities.
Currently, there are 16 refugee farmers growing at the New Roots’ nine-acre training farm, Juniper Gardens. Each has a quarter acre plot of land. On the farm, they learn the process and skills to farm, manage, market, and sell produce which they grow with their own hands. Everything grown at the Juniper Gardens Training Farm abides by strict organic principles. Genetically modified or treated seeds, synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides, or anything else that is forbidden on certified organic farms are never used. Apart from annual tillage, and the use of small walk-behind tillers, New Roots’ farmers generally cultivate the earth relying primarily on their own physical strength rather than petroleum powered machinery.
The refugees’ home grown produce not only feeds their families, but is also sold at several local Farmers’ Markets (link to list of markets below), and through the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
As their farm businesses become established and they develop more skills, they move to greater financial and managerial independence. Eventually they are able to move onto their own land and operate independently.
Visit the New Roots for Refugees website for more information.
