Why was a $165k grant for KC urban farming canceled? DEI, says Trump administration
Alana Henry had finished Valentine’s Day dinner with her husband when she checked her email. The letter in the inbox was a gut punch.
The United States Department of Agriculture was killing a grant that had been awarded to the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, which she leads as executive director. The nonprofit had been set to receive $165,000 over three years to expand its farmers market and promote urban farming in the area, one of the poorer neighborhoods in Kansas City.
No more. In bureaucratic language, the letter that arrived at 7:17 p.m. Friday stated the award “no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities.”
Never mind that Ivanhoe’s farmers market is a crucial way for residents to get fresh produce. Never mind that a more robust market would mean additional opportunities for urban farmers to sell their products in a challenging environment where some operate at a loss. Never mind the grant would have helped launch a market aimed in part at lower-income young mothers.
“Frustrated. Disappointed. Not shocked,” Henry said.
The Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council’s office was mostly empty on Monday, a holiday, but Henry was present, trying to figure out the way forward. The second-floor office in a building along Woodland Avenue overlooks its learning farm – a reminder of the stakes of their work.
The farmers market, which attracts upwards of 30 local vendors and hundreds of people, will open again in the spring and the nonprofit will continue efforts to encourage urban farming. But the loss of the grant is a setback.
The Ivanhoe grant marked only the latest fallout in the Kansas City metro from the wave of spending cuts and reductions enacted since President Donald Trump took office. Some $38 million in grants for electrical vehicle charging stations and other clean energy programs also appear at risk, for example.
Trump has targeted DEI programs, which the president and his allies have assailed as wasteful and “woke.” Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing the termination of all DEI programs, policies and mandates within the federal government, including all “equity-related” grants and contracts.
“Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great,” the order says.
On Friday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced USDA had terminated 78 contracts valued at $132 million and was reviewing 1,000 more. She also rescinded all DEI programs.
“We will end identity politics, identity celebrations, and DEI at USDA — period,” Rollins told agency employees on Friday.
USDA’s actions under Trump mark a sharp turnaround for the agency. When USDA announced the grant in early November, the agency touted the award recipients as helping strengthen local and regional food systems.
“Me as a citizen am very not only disappointed but angered at what I’m seeing at sort of an indiscriminate cutting of initiatives and programs based on some trigger words, without really evaluating what are the programs, what is the potential harm if we cut this and what does the capacity look like for these organizations or entities to step in and fill the gap,” Henry said.
Henry is herself an urban farmer. Her father, Alan Young Sr., started a farm in the neighborhood years ago. What was once a family garden grew into Young Family Farm, with the family starting to cultivate crops in 2012.
Young said he had been looking forward to the expanded farmers market, which he said would help move the business closer to profitability. The farm currently operates at a loss, but Young said the business is in the investment phase. Demand for local produce exceeds supply and Young Family Farm is attempting to scale up to meet demand.
Young Family Farm tries to hold down costs for consumers, he said, so that area residents, many of whom are lower-income, can afford to eat healthy. He voiced concern at the canceled grant but expressed alarm that changes at USDA will put many small farms out of business.
“I don’t see how this ends well,” Young said.
Henry is trying to save some of the work the grant was set to fund. Volunteers can maybe help keep the market open longer. Financial contributions could perhaps offset part of an employee’s salary that the grant would have paid. Donated tables and tents could help vendors.
‘Heartbreaking’ cancellation
The Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council’s predicament is already attracting attention. A lengthy Facebook post from Henry detailing the grant cancellation had been shared more than 3,600 times as of Monday afternoon.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said on social media that Ivanhoe’s situation was “being echoed at organizations across our city.”
“It is heartbreaking for our communities and will set back healthy food options, agriculture, and fundamentally, our community long term. And we’re just one place,” Lucas wrote.
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, said Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire heading up the president’s cost-cutting initiative, were “leaving a massive mess for our communities to clean up in their wake.”
“I am deeply concerned and outraged by the decision of the new administration to terminate critical USDA programs and grants that have provided essential resources to communities throughout the urban core in my district,” Cleaver said in a statement on Tuesday.
“These programs have supported local farmers, improved food access, and strengthened nutrition assistance for vulnerable families in Western Missouri,” he added. “At a time when we should be investing in solutions that promote equity, opportunity, and lower costs for the public, this decision does the exact opposite.”
As news of the cancellation rippled across Kansas City’s tight-knit urban farming community, producers voiced fear other grants may meet the same fate.
Brien Darby, executive director of Cultivate KC, a nonprofit focused on urban agriculture metro-wide, said the group has heard from news outlets – not USDA – that grants are being reviewed for DEI terms.
In addition to DEI, grants that touch on climate change are also thought to be endangered. Trump’s executive order targets any “environmental justice” programs for cancellation.
Darby called the actions illegal and suggested lawsuits could eventually overturn the decisions.
“We are really focused on the fight right now,” Darby said.
Henry said people must engage with what’s happening and keep asking how they support their neighborhood and those around them – including talking to elected officials and voicing their displeasure with what’s happening.
“I know it feels very overwhelming,” Henry said. “But we can’t give up hope. We have to keep one step forward, right?”
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
