Taking root in KCK: Blue KC kicks off rebirth of Splitlog Farm
Amy Thomas received quite a surprise when she saw an email that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) was holding a volunteer event to kick off a project to restore the Splitlog Farm in Kansas City, KS.
“When I first read it, I had to do a double take,” said Thomas, a Blue KC accountant. “It brought back memories. All those days flooded back.”
The farm sits across the street from M.E. Pearson Elementary School, part of KCK Public Schools. Thomas was a second grader when she was in the inaugural class who attended M.E. Pearson when the school opened in 1977.
“I remember the first day holding my mom’s hand walking into M.E. Pearson,” she said. “They used to have a planetarium inside the school. That was the most special thing and got me interested in the stars. The library upstairs was huge. I remember being allowed to go up there and sit on the bean bag and do our work if we were good.”
Nearly 50 years later, kids at her former school will have a place to go for free healthy food. A partnership between Blue KC, Build WyCo, Cornerstones of Care and its vocational program Build Trybe will help restore the urban Splitlog Farm, a community garden that features nearly an acre of land along Splitlog Avenue and 11th Street.
“We’ve kind of seen the farm come and go over the years,” said M.E. Pearson Elementary School principal Lori Cooper. “Kind of exciting to think that we’re going to get it started back up again.”
History of Splitlog Farm
The farm once produced 1,500 pounds of food in a single year for the surrounding Bethany neighborhood and M.E. Pearson Elementary School through a partnership between Build WyCo and KC Healthy Kids. Several years ago, when local food programs lost their funding through the USDA, Build WyCo had to put the program on pause. Now, the new effort underway will work to bring the farm back to life.
“This is a really exciting moment that came from a lot of dreaming and conversations,” said Build Trybe Director Theo Bunch.
“This vision started in the spring of 2025,” said Build WyCo Associate Executive Director Carlanda McKinney. “We brought neighbors together to envision what this space could become again. We’ve gone through several ways of operations out of the farm. We are so excited it is coming back online”
Splitlog Farm renovation begins
Last month, Build Trybe worked with volunteers from Blue KC to clear brush and fill dumpsters as work began to restore the farm to its former glory.
“We are here clean up this space so we can get it back to a place where kids at M.E. Pearson Elementary School, as well as others in this community can break bread, grow food and enjoy being together,” said Blue KC Director of Community Relations and Investment Macaela Stephenson.
The work is just getting started. The new project will help the Splitlog Farm provide access to healthy food for the school and the surrounding neighborhood, as well as an outdoor classroom for the school and eating space for the neighborhood to enjoy.
“Last year we opened a food pantry, and so we are really hoping that the partnership at Splitlog will allow us to use some of that produce and food to run through our food pantry,” said Cooper, who has been the principal at M.E. Pearson Elementary for 11 years. “Our food pantry has kind of been a lifeline for our parents here. It allows them to get things that they otherwise might not be able to afford.”
Splitlog Farm project aims to improve food insecurity
The initiative will help address food insecurity, as one in seven people (15.1%) and one in five children (20%) in the Kansas City region are at risk of hunger. The county with the highest rate of food insecurity in the Kansas City region is Wyandotte, (18.8% overall, 26% for children).
Thomas knows first-hand the difference a food pantry can make in her hometown.
“For 20 years, up until COVID hit, my husband and I ran a food bank out of our church serving about 600 families a month and sometimes up to a thousand families a month,” she said.
When Thomas was living in the Bethany Neighborhood, houses took up the area where the Splitlog Farm site sits today.
“That farm is so needed,” she said. “We noticed even with running the food pantry, you would be surprised what it does for people to have food. We forget about our elderly. Sometimes, they have to choose between paying rent or buying groceries. With the access to fresh vegetables right there, that’s going to be amazing!”
It won’t be a surprise if Thomas, who still lives in Kansas City, KS, shows up to volunteer on the farm.
“The Thomas crew would love to help,” said Thomas, who has five sons. “They used to all help with the food pantry. To see that my job is giving back to my community that is so dear to my heart, it makes me so proud that I’m working for Blue KC.”
