Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lena M Sleyster. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

It was Q3 of 2023, Urban Bounty Farms was in 11 grocery stores, delivering to consumers and restaurants around the KC metro, and I was still managing a full-time corporate career. Doing none of it ‘well’ in my eyes, I decided to take a step back. Both were large career opportunities and continuing to juggle both was unfair to both companies, myself, and let alone my family. So, I left the corporate world, turned down a fat opportunity from Hostess (lol get it?) went from spending hundreds to pinching pennies. Growing Urban Bounty Farms, a business that can provide sustainable food systems for generations to come makes sense so that’s what I am championing.

Lena, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a former IoT Product Manager that focused on combining Hardware and Software applications to provide solutions to enterprise and SLED segments. Technology has always inspired me, that’s why when my family decided to start an indoor hydroponic farm, it was, and still is a challenge I whole heartedly embraced.

We are currently working to prove that blighted buildings can be turned into small hydroponic farms, creating jobs, increased property value, and more importantly healthy food options for Kansas City year-round. Our salad kits with a simple dressing and farmers choice boxes are popular with consumers while we focus on bulk produce order for restaurants. I am most excited for our efforts of growing food close to where it is consumed becoming a sustainable business that can operate for years to come. By dialing in costs and selling before grown, we are able to remain operable unlike so many other hydroponic or indoor vertical farms announce bankruptcies or failures to start the year.

Changes in climate patterns, population growth, and loss of farmland due to
urbanization and natural land erosion continue to increase pressure on the world’s food
supply, while changes in real-estate use, the growth in urbanization is leaving commercial
buildings abandoned or underutilized. These changes create the perfect opportunity for
us to establish new roots to fuel sustainable farming in Kansas City, Missouri. In April
2022, our family began planting seeds, building an online presence, and learning about
various urban farming methods. Through the repurposing of blighted real estate, a
couple of motivated family members started building small urban hydroponic farms
solutions, and Urban Bounty Farms was born.

While our journey started out of a shipping container growing
roots, herbs, lettuce, and microgreens in Lee’s summit, it quickly
expanded to the ‘Malt Room’ at the old Heim Brewery off
Guinotte Avenue. We are replicating sustainable farming
methods at a larger scale growing cucumbers and microgreens with the goal of creating solutions beyond centralized
produce that champion the development of the community and increase property value in Kansas City.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We are not generational farmers and when we started our journey to sustainable farming in April of 2022, we still had full time corporate careers, non-agricultural related. Hydroponic and traditional farming produce were both new to me but with enough YouTube, exploding passion, and a lot of trial-and-error hours, we started yielding certain crops well and understanding what crop varieties were worth growing. I’ll never grow a $300 carrot again but am lucky to have the experience to now know what I can yield at a worthy rate, that’s not just basil and leafy greens like all the CEA industry haters claim indoor vertical farmers grow.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

We partner up with other sustainable curators and farmers in the KC metro to provide additional items on our website al la carte as well as in the form of a Farmers Choice Box. Partnering up with a kombucha providers, Chicken egg farmer, pork farmer, sourdough baker, and bee farm allow us to provide a larger lineup of grocery store type items to our consumers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://urbanbountyfarm.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanbountyfarms?igsh=MXBhbTgwejh1dTh2Nw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UrbanBountyFarmsInc
• Linkedin: ARLENE SLEYSTER
• Other: URBAN BOUNTY RECIPE EBOOKS: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF8KEEEcuc/82D0i7l8W9KPYOHCW9xWSg/edit?utm_content=DAF8KEEEcuc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton https://www.canva.com/design/DAF6qp8PSTA/yIjb7qaGs12nQaNYEMmfdg/edit?utm_content=DAF6qp8PSTA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton OTHER PR: https://kcyesterday.com/articles/reviving-the-legacy-of-heim-brewery-sustainable-farming-and-local-businesses-in-kansas-citys-east-bottoms https://www.verticalfarmdaily.com/article/9547013/us-mo-urban-bounty-farms-growing-helping-vets/ https://voyagekc.com/interview/inspiring-conversations-with-lena-sleyster-of-urban-bounty-farms-inc/

Image Credits
KP PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE BLACK AND WHITE HEADSHOT.