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Grower / Producer Membership Sign-up

(this page is being revised for 2010)

Contents:

• Why Join?
• The KC Food Circle Growers Group E-Mail List
• FORMS
• Old BB Issues / New Communication Developments

Why Local Food Producers Should Join the Kansas City Food Circle

Membership entitles you to a listing of your choice in our Directory of Local Organic and Natural Food Producers, which also includes listings of Organic Farmers Markets and other info. Each year we distribute over 2000 of our printed directories. Some of these are undoubtedly passed around to friends and family of the recipients. The Directory is also available for viewing & direct download from this website.

In addition, our web site allows you to provide much more info about your operation, including photos, and to post updates throughout the year. Your detailed crop and product listings will help eaters and buyers find you, the producer, much more efficiently.

In joining the Food Circle you will be supporting our common goal which is to:

• educate the public about the damages caused by our industrialized food system;
• dramatically increase the demand for locally grown, organic and humanely produced food, ie. promote your products;
• help family farmers practice sustainable agriculture and stay on the land.

In addition to distributing the Directory, we table at events, and we speak to church and community groups. We send out a newsletter 3 times per year. The building of personal connections is a big part of what the Food Circle is all about. We encourage networking among producers and also with eaters on the best way to attract and please new customers.

Each year in early spring the Food Circle organizes an Annual Exhibition of Farmers (our EAT LOCAL! expo) . A thousand people attended our two events in 2006. In 2007 attendance peaked at over 1100 at a single expo in Shawnee, KS. In 2008 and 2009 we sponsored two well-attended Expos, and in 2010 we will again be holding two events - one in Shawnee (KS) on Saturday, March 27 (on the west side of Kansas City), and in Independence (Missouri) on Saturday, April 3rd.

These events are widely advertised and expressly designed to introduce new eaters to the joys of good, locally-produced food - hosting these early-season face-to-face opportunities, we strive to press home the importance of having locavores meet the farmers who produce their food all year long. As a grower member you will automatically receive Expo registration materials in early February. A modest table fee is required in addition to your membership dues.

The Food Circle’s work is more important than ever. Big corporations are moving into the market for organic food, but the Food Circle’s mission has always been to promote the consumption of locally grown organic and free-range foods produced by small family farms. People like you that we know and trust. You produce the freshest, best tasting food with the least inputs of fossil fuels. We want to keep you in business.

Requirements for Membership
Our requirements are that you are a family farmer within roughly 120 miles of Kansas City (contact us if you are further away). You produce and/or process fruits, vegetables, and flowers using organic methods, and/or you produce free range meats. Free range meats are produced without the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics or growth hormones or the use of domestic animal byproducts in feed. “Free range” means that animals have regular access to the out-of-doors. Organic certification is not required.

How to Join
If you meet our requirements as a producer please send in your check for $30 with the membership form and pledges, and include a brief description of your operation (your Directory listing). If you miss our printing deadline in March, you can still join for a reduced fee of $20 (for this year only) - you will still get multiple listings on our web site and receive all other membership benefits.

Printed directory listing parameters.
To see example listings, please download our most recent Directory (.PDF). If you are concerned about farm security, you need not include your street address, but be sure to include your phone, fax, email and website address if you have one.

Most important: describe the ways a eater can get your food, ie. farmers market, retail store, CSA’s (weekly subscription drop off) etc. Many eaters are too busy to travel to your farm on a regular basis, especially if it is a long distance.

If you are a meat producer we encourage you to include details about how your animals are raised and fed, since the eaters we attract are usually very concerned about quality and how farm animals are treated.

Your Know Your Grower listing. Our new WordPress web site includes expanded individual food producers’ listings as an extension of the Directory. You have much more space to include photos & details about your operation. In general, the more an eater gets to know you, the more products you will sell. Please include a photo or two of your family, your farm and fields, livestock - anything that might encourage eaters to get to know you even better. Advertise your farm visits (if you want that). If you have a website, be sure to provide the link.

NOTE: Due to security issues (registration spamming) with the old bulletin board,
logins and new registrations are disabled - the Know Your Grower section will be
kept current by way of e-mail to the WebMinion.

## scroll down for FORMS and other info ##

KC Food Circle Member Growers E-Mail List

Click here to visit this private Google group - KC Food Circle Member Growers may request an invitation to join the official KCFC Growers E-Mail List - This is a SECURE LIST - e-mail addresses used in this list are protected and the list itself is invisible to the public.

FORMS

Our KC Food Circle sign-up forms are included, below. You may download all our Sign-Up documents in the .ZIP file or download individual files - please mail all of them in with your membership fee.)

• Sign-Up Documents - ALL (.ZIP)
  …
• Producer Pledges (.DOC)
  or
  Producer Pledges (.PDF)
  …
• Sign-Up Form and Cover Letter (.DOC)
  or
  Sign-Up Form and Cover Letter (.PDF)
  …
• Animal Farmers Pledge .JPG *
  …
• Plant and Mushroom Farmers Pledge .JPG *

* These may look fuzzy in your web browser but they will print out full-page just fine.

Our printing deadline for the new Directory is in mid-March.

Your online info is kept up-to-date on a regular basis - you may send your Directory and other web content updates by e-mail at any time during the year.
WebMinion {@} KCFoodCircle.org

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### — Please print our Sign-Up form and Pledge(s) and mail them in with your membership fee.
Updates to your KCFC Directory and web entries may also be sent in by e-mail to
WebMinion {@} KCFoodCircle.org ###

Yes, sign me up! I want to help create a sustainable community food system
as a farmer-member of the Kansas City Food Circle!
Name _______________________________________ Name of Farm ________________________________________
Address ____________________________________ City _______________________ State _____ ZIP ________
Phone: Home _______________ Work _______________ Cell ________________ Fax _______________
E-mail__________________________________ Website ________________________________________
Please only submit the contact info you want us to include in your Directory listing.
___ Use the contact information and description from my last listing in the Directory.
___ Use the new listing enclosed with this renewal form.
___ Yes, save some paper and send me announcements and Update newsletters at my email address above.
___ No, continue sending me paper copies of event notices and Update newsletters.
Please enclose payment in the amount of $30.00 for annual membership.
Make checks payable to Heart of America Action Linkage and return to:
K. C. Food Circle, P. O. Box 45195, K. C. Mo. 64171
Please print or type your new KCFC Directory Entry description clearly: 
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BB (bulletin board) RECAP for FOOD PRODUCERS:

Sections of the KCFC Bulletin Board and Forums are designed to help eaters
connect directly with KCFC member farmers and food producers. All producers
need do is send in your questions, comments and updates to the
WebMinion {@} KCFoodCircle.org

Sorry for any confusion over access to the old public BB - due to security and spamming issues, we’ve had to eliminate it and move to a new solution or two .

Our new web log (a KCFoodCircle BLOG - to help us post timely announcements) and our new KC Food Circle Bulletin Board (protected member list - secure registratiobn - more interactive) provide direct input. Entries from the old bulletin board will be archived as a searchable web reference and/or re-posted in a KC Food Circle Knowledgebase.

Growers can always edit their own Directory and Know Your Grower entries, or post updates to the Harvest Hotline, EVENTS and other parts of the new BB by way ofe-mail to the WebMinion.

Thanks!

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