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What farmers and ranchers can teach us about community
by Rick McNary
I learned a powerful idea about community in an African refugee camp near Somalia. As thousands of refugees streamed into the camp, I was surprised at how quickly they shared…
10 ways to become friends with farmers and ranchers
by Rick McNary
The best award I’ve ever received was the "Friend of Agriculture" from Kansas Farm Bureau. Being considered a friend from people whom I admire, especially since I'm not a farmer,…
10 things you may not know about farmers and ranchers
by Rick McNary
I began writing for Kansas Living magazine about farmers and ranchers in 2015 as an outsider-looking-in because I wanted to understand how agriculture works. Here is an article I…
Connecting Kansans to farmers and ranchers through Shop Kansas Farms
by Rick McNary
This post was submitted to Kansas newspapers Sept. 28, 2023.“What in the world is going on?”I asked myself that question frequently after I launched the Shop Kansas Farms (SKF)…
Shop Kansas Farms: A new way to shop for food
by Rick McNary
This post was submitted to Kansas newspapers Oct. 5, 2023.
How Shop Kansas Farms builds community: Part three
by Rick McNary
Two of the most difficult parts of managing Shop Kansas Farms (SKF) for the last three and a half years has been maintaining the original vision to connect people to farmers so…
How Shop Kansas Farms builds community: Part two
by Rick McNary
After 40 years of sharpening my skills in building communities, whether they’re online, such as Shop Kansas Farms (SKF), or geographically defined like the small town where I live…
Why Farmers and Ranchers Understand Community Better Than the Rest of Us
How Shop Kansas Farms builds community: Part one
by Rick McNary
“Dad, you need to build some kind of a community,” my son, Caleb, told me when the pandemic hit in 2020. “Building community is what you do best.”He’s right. I do love a…
How a commercial kitchen can help your community create business opportunities
by Rick McNary
In the late 1940s, Dorothy Lynch and her husband ran a restaurant in St. Paul, Neb. She created her own tomato-based salad dressing, which became so popular patrons would bring…
What does 700 aprons have to do with Shop Kansas Farms?
by Rick McNary
The tiny village of Jicaro (hee’-ka-row) Bonito sat along a river high in the mountains of Nicaragua near the border of Honduras. While delivering truckloads of food and supplies…