Local Food Fellows Program
The Local Food Fellows program provided the opportunity for local organizations and businesses to hire a short-term position to work on a specific local food project that will benefit their community. Past fellows have done a wide range of things, from working with a farmers market to helping a business make new connections for marketing products. This work was funded by a Regional Food Systems Partnership Grant through the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, K-State Research and Extension Local Food Systems.
Due to the current Regional Food System Partnership Grant funding ending in September 2025 and the uncertainty of future funding for this program, we do not currently have plans to fund a round of fellows in 2026. We will continue to explore funding opportunities for the future.
Over the past two years, we have partnered with 30 different organizations across Kansas to fund fellows for local projects.
Fellows Program Videos
Frequently Asked Questions
Any community organization or business in the state of Kansas involved in the local food system was eligible to apply. This included, but was not limited to, production, processing, distribution, marketing, media, communications, or community engagement.
- Project must have taken place in the state of Kansas.
- Project was related to at least one of the key elements of a local food system including: production, processing, distribution, access, consumption, and/or recovery.
- Project activities involved education, marketing, planning, or organizing efforts to increase the capacity of local food systems in Kansas.
- Projects involved food produced and consumed in Kansas.
- Projects increased access to educational materials, resources, and technical expertise related to the local food system of Kansas.
- Projects engaged new partners including diverse, under-represented populations.
We hired 16 fellows in 2024 and have funding to hire 18 fellows in 2025. We anticipate hiring 10 independent fellows and 8 K-State student fellows in 2025.
If the project required more than one person to complete the desired outcome, then we considered funding more than one fellow at one site. However, we intended to fund as many diverse projects across the state as possible. Therefore, multiple fellows at one site was dependent on how many other proposals we received.
Yes, there was flexibility in the timeline of the fellowship. If desired to hire a part-time fellow and extend the funding over a longer period of time, that was acceptable. It was possible to request funding to hire a full-time fellow for two fellowship periods based on competitiveness of other fellow applicants and project details.
No, you must have been able to provide staff to manage the day-to-day activities of your fellow. The K-State Research and Extension Local Food System Program Coordinator provided management support but was not able to provide regular supervision or management of the fellow.
Yes, 2024 host sites could apply again. We strongly encouraged applicants to clearly state what changes or expansions were make in 2025 to improve the project.