For more information contact:
Kelly Cannon
Kelly.Cannon@BlueKC.com
O: (816) 395-3711
KANSAS CITY, MO. (April 21, 2025) — Kansas City Community Gardens (KCCG) will kick off the summer gardening season with its annual “Tomato Days” plant sale on April 24-26. From the start of the plant sale through the first weeks of May, more than 3,000 KCCG member gardeners will visit KCCG’s headquarters at 6917 Kensington, KCMO to select low-priced warm season seeds, vegetable and herb plants.
Tomato Days 2025 is presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), underwriting the cost of planting, propagating and nurturing over 80,000 greenhouse-grown vegetable and herb seedlings on site at KCCG headquarters. Blue KC has been a long-time supporter of KCCG’s efforts of increasing access to nutritious foods in underserved neighborhoods through their Well Stocked initiative.
“Access to fresh and healthy produce is imperative to a better diet and where better to access those foods than one’s own backyard! We are excited to partner with Kansas City Community Gardens to provide members of our community with plants to start and grow their own backyard gardens. Tomato Days is a great opportunity to bring friends and neighbors together to learn and grow!” – Macaela Stephenson, Director of Community Relations and Investment, Blue KC
The first day of the sale, April 24, is reserved for low-income members, with plants available for all members starting Friday, April 25. The sale is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
KCCG is a non-profit organization with a mission to help Kansas City’s low-income residents grow their own healthy foods in home and community gardens. Its membership program for home gardeners offers seeds, transplants and gardening supplies at prices significantly lower than most retail stores. Memberships range from $2-$45 annually based on household income and can be purchased at the plant sale. As a guideline, a family of four earning $51,550 or less qualifies for the organization’s low-income membership.
Plants for sale include 18 varieties of tomatoes, 14 varieties of peppers, eggplant and herbs, including basil, parsley, sorrel, rosemary and summer savory, all grown in KCCG’s onsite greenhouses. Annually, KCCG provides nearly 60,000 seed packets (from arugula to watermelon) and 200,000 greenhouse-grown seedlings to its members.
KCCG offers four options for gardeners to purchase warm season plants:
- Join us for the excitement of the Tomato Day Parking Lot sale at KCCG’s Swope Park headquarters (6917 Kensington Avenue, KCMO, 64132) on April 24-26. Sale hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
- Plants will continue to be available for purchase at the KCCG office after the sale for several weeks until supplies run out. Office hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, with extended hours on Thursday evenings until 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
- KCCG will host the Jersey Creek Satellite Sale for gardeners in Kansas City, Kansas on Monday, April 28, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jersey Creek Community Garden at 11th & Parallel Parkway in Kansas City, Kansas. Gardeners may purchase plants, seeds and memberships.
To ensure all members who want to garden this year can buy plants, customers will be limited to a maximum purchase of 10 3-packs of vegetable plants and 30 packs of seeds during the sale.
Gardeners can visit KCCG.org for guide sheets, how-to videos and recordings of all full-length workshops helping gardeners grow the best 2025 gardens.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City, has been part of the Kansas City community since 1938. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City provides health coverage services to more than one million residents in the greater Kansas City area, including Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and 30 counties in Northwest Missouri. Our mission: to provide affordable access to healthcare and to improve the health of our members. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information on the company, visit its website at BlueKC.com.