By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
The holiday gift box is arriving in Hawaii. It’s a collection of food products from far away in Kansas. These products represent some of the best rural food producers in our state.
Robin Dolby is marketing coordinator for From the Land of Kansas, a program of the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Ths year marks the 46th year of the program.
The program promotes businesses that grow, produce, process or manufacture products in Kansas. The program also supports restaurants that use Kansas products and retailers that sell Kansas agriculture products and ingredients. Plus, it is the central registration point for Kansas farmers markets.
As of mid-October 2024, there are 418 members participating in From the Land of Kansas and another 113 registered farmers markets in the state.
From the Land of Kansas staff are always looking for more ways to promote their members. In 2017, they launched a new idea: A gift box full of in-state Kansas products that could be offered for sale during the holidays. It was so successful that the gift box has been offered each year since.
“We are excited to gain more exposure for our members to customers across the country,” Dolby said.
Each year, those From the Land of Kansas members with adequate capacity have the opportunity to sign up for their products to be included in the gift boxes.
“The contents of the gift boxes change each year. It’s always fun to see what new products might be included,” Dolby said. “The gift boxes don’t have to be Christmas gifts, but a lot of people want to order things during the holidays. So it’s a good time to offer them.”
Each gift box is accompanied with a card, including a list of the included products and companies, plus a personal handwritten message from the staff.
“We handwrite whatever message the customer requests,” Dolby said. Often these are holiday wishes, but they might also be “Happy birthday” or “Thank you for your business.”
Gift boxes can be ordered each year around October 1 and are shipped at the time desired by the customer. In other words, they could be ordered in the fall for delivery in mid-December, for example.
The gift boxes include products that are shelf-stable for shipping. The boxes are packed by people at Manhattan’s Big Lakes Developmental Center, a facility for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “We really appreciate our partnership with them,” Dolby said.
The 2024 Kansas holiday gift box includes a variety of tasty treats, including:
- Honey from AJ Honey Farms in Salina.
- Baked Potato Soup Mix from Twisted Pepper in Wichita.
- Sweet & Tangy Mustard from Grannie’s Homemade Mustard in Hillsboro.
- Mild and Sassy BBQ Sauce from Spice It Up in Bonner Springs.
- Rainbow Pops freeze-dried candy from Mammoth Mouth in LaCygne.
- Milk Chocolate Toffee from Tonya’s Toffee in Leoti.
- Chocolate Sunflower from Sweet Granada in Emporia.
It also includes rural community products such as Beef Sticks from Pat’s Beef Jerky in Liebenthal, MKC’s Rub from MKC Kitchen LLC in Bazine, Sand Plum Jelly from Bruce’s Bullseye Farms in Leon, and Summer Sausage from R Family Farms in Lebanon.
The average size of those communities is 305 people. Now, that’s rural.
“Last year we shipped to all but two states, even Alaska and Hawaii,” Dolby said. “We’re excited to help our members get their products exposed to a larger audience and help people share Kansas with friends and family all over the U.S.”
For more information or to order, go to www.fromthelandofkansas.com.
It’s time to leave Hawaii where this gift box full of tasty treats arrived in time for the holidays, thanks to the marketing staff of the Kansas Department of Agriculture. We salute the From the Land of Kansas team and all those involved with this program for making a difference by promoting our state’s products.
Where did these tasty treats come from? They all came from the land of Kansas. Happy holidays!
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
