Elon Musk & DOGE are targeting one of Kansas City’s most prominent Black-led neighborhood councils—slashing a federal grant and threatening a vital food sovereignty movement.
Originally published in The Kansas City Defender.
At exactly 7:17 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council Executive Director Alana Henry received a terse notice from the USDA: the agency was canceling its three-year Farmer’s Market Promotion Program (FMPP) award to Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council. The cut was swift, shocking, and, for those who’ve been paying attention, all too predictable.
The Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council (located in one of Kansas City’s historically Black neighborhoods) had already launched a visionary plan to boost food sovereignty and economic power in the community.
Their programs offered training for local growers—many of them Black, brown, and small-scale—so they could sell fresh, affordable produce at neighborhood farmers markets.
The project intended to expand market days, incorporate new services for elders and mothers on WIC, and improve healthy food access for families reliant on SNAP/EBT. In short, it aimed to upend the long history of Black land loss, the lack of access to fresh food in disinvested areas, and the systemic obstacles that keep Black farmers from thriving.
Then, out of nowhere, came the letter.
The USDA’s justification? Under the new unelected oligarch, Elon Musk, and his DOGE cronies, these kinds of community-based initiatives are apparently labeled “DEI” and “wasteful.” The hammer fell: termination—effective immediately.
“Elon made sure to head to Twitter for his latest gloating, propagandized message for the masses about how many ‘wasteful’ USDA contracts were just bid adieu,” says Henry. “Taking a hacksaw to federal agencies with no plan? That is…not a winning strategy for our nation.”
A Nationwide Pattern of Attacks on Black Farmers
Yet, this isn’t an isolated or even entirely new story. For decades, Black and brown farmers have struggled under oppressive federal agriculture policies that favor Big Ag while leaving smaller, community-focused growers out in the cold.
From the early 1900s to the present day, Black farmland ownership in the U.S. has plummeted. According to a report by FoodPrint, “Racist violence, anti-Black legislation, discrimination at federal agencies and other systemic injustices all contributed to that decline over the course of the 20th century.”
From 1992 to 2002, 94 percent of Black farmers lost part or all of their farmland – three times the rate at which white farmers lost land. Today, Black landowners make up less than one percent of farmland ownership in the country. – Berkeley Food Institute
One estimate suggests that farmland lost since 1920 has meant more than $326 billion in lost wealth for Black farmers and their families. These losses continue to reverberate, as organizations like the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council struggle to maintain and expand precious community agricultural spaces in historically redlined neighborhoods.
The Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council’s now-canceled project was working against this tide by carving out space for Black-led agriculture, local business development, and equitable access to healthy food.
Call it “food sovereignty,” call it “community self-determination”—the point is that these neighbors were building power from the ground up. That’s precisely what makes this abrupt USDA shutdown so concerning and in fact violent: it threatens to choke out one of the last remaining Black-led agricultural efforts in Kansas City.
A Historic Neighborhood Under Siege
Ivanhoe itself sits in the heart of Kansas City, a historically disinvested area shaped by redlining, environmental racism, and the flight of grocery stores to wealthier white neighborhoods. Locals have long relied on convenience stores with limited (and often low-quality) produce, driving up health disparities and preventing any semblance of self-sufficiency.
Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council had a different vision. Their plan involved:
- Empowering Black and brown growers with the training and tools to increase food production.
- Expanding farmers markets to ensure families on SNAP/EBT, WIC, and seniors using the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) could easily purchase nutritious food.
- Supporting new and established growers to take on leadership roles, foster generational wealth, and revitalize a local agricultural economy.
A three-year, $165,000 federal award (plus a 25% match) was supposed to help realize that vision. In the grand scheme of government budgets, $165,000 is peanuts. But for a neighborhood facing systemic barriers to healthy food access, it was a lifeline—now cruelly cut off.
Local Leadership Responds
Kansas City’s mayor Lucas also weighed in, condemning Elon Musk’s brazen cuts and acknowledging the direct blow to Ivanhoe’s efforts.
“Cuts by Elon Musk continue to devastate American communities like Kansas City,” said Mayor Lucas. “Ivanhoe recently had funding eliminated that supports urban food production, backyard gardeners, local growers, an inner-city farmer’s market, and resources to provide healthy food to young mothers… this is being echoed at organizations across our city… And we’re just one place. Stay alert. Organize. Make a difference.”
Another community member, Dina JNewman wrote on her Facebook;
Musk & DOGE’s Funding Slashes Are Direct Attacks on Black Community Lifelines
The abrupt termination can’t be separated from the larger political climate. Under Musk’s ongoing coup, federal agencies across the board are taking hits and being outright destroyed—especially programs that uplift oppressed communities and communities of color. He and his cronies are gutting everything from healthcare services at the VA to local food initiatives at the USDA.
It is without question that these cuts represent a deliberate, fascist overthrow of any program that empowers poor and working-class people of color. There’s no replacement plan, no alternative strategy—just a gleeful slash-and-burn approach aimed at leaving vulnerable communities out to die.
“Don’t be fooled. We are not an outlier,” Henry warns. “We are going to see the impacts of this for decades. We’re in the middle of a hostile takeover, and some of us are asleep at the wheel.”
Why This Matters to You—Wherever You Live
Even if you live miles away from Kansas City, make no mistake: what happens in Ivanhoe matters to every farmer, every grassroots organization fighting for healthy food access, and every Black community who believes in local self-determination.
When programs like Ivanhoe’s get axed without warning, it sends a terrifying message to people organizing for food sovereignty in other cities and rural areas nationwide: You will be next.
Ivanhoe’s Call to Action
Despite this targeted blow, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council refuses to fold. They will continue hosting monthly markets, albeit on a leaner, more uncertain budget. And they’re calling on folks across Missouri, Kansas, and the entire nation to stand in solidarity:
- Donate:
- Volunteer:
- They need 2–4 volunteers on the 2nd Saturday of each month (7 a.m. – 11 a.m. and 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.).
- They need 1–2 volunteers on the 4th Friday of each month (2–6 p.m. and 4–8 p.m.).
- A weekly volunteer can help with outreach for about 4 hours each week.
- They need four white 10×10 tents and folks willing to lead trainings for local growers.
- Demand Accountability:
- Write, call, or email your state and federal representatives. Ask why the USDA continues to target programs that are crucial to Black and brown communities—and demand an immediate end to these cuts.
- Stay Vigilant:
- Get passports, keep key documents in order, support local nonprofits that do vital community work.
- Lobby philanthropic groups and local foundations to fill the gap with unrestricted funding.
A New Chapter in the Fight for Food Sovereignty
Across the country, Black farmers and community organizers are aware of these vicious attacks on their livelihoods, and are tired of waiting for the state to “allow” them to feed their neighbors. Ivanhoe’s story makes clear: federal funding can and is vanishing overnight, so real power lies in grassroots organizing and mutual aid networks that can’t be so easily dismantled.
“We’re not shutting down,” Henry says. “We will still host our monthly markets… but our plans for expansion won’t be what they were. I’m sad for the community. But we are not giving up on doing the right thing for the people.”
That resilience is the beating heart of this story. Musk and his DOGE fascists can attempt to kill one of Kansas City’s last remaining Black-led neighborhood councils, but they cannot extinguish the will of a community determined to grow, thrive, and feed itself.
And for all of us—from KC to California to the Carolinas—the lesson is also clear: The road to true food sovereignty doesn’t run through the good graces of oligarchs in Washington. It runs through our own unshakable commitment to one another.
Whether we’re planting seeds, hosting markets, or pushing back against racist and oppressive policies, our power lies in our solidarity and our refusal to be erased.
This is unquestioningly a national alarm. It’s time to wake up, stand with Ivanhoe, and make sure these brazen attempts to strangle Black-led agriculture do not go unanswered.
Ryan has a diverse background including working at one of the nation’s most esteemed Black think tanks, one of Chicago’s top B2B Tech PR agencies, a top 3 global PR firm, and founding Kansas City’s largest Black-led direct action group during the 2020 uprisings. During Ryan’s professional career he’s consulted brands such as Facebook, Samsung, Amazon and Google.
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