There’s a lot going on in the yard of Corinna West’s home in the historic Westheight neighborhood. Out front, a bevy of native plants, flowers, and fruits wave for attention in the afternoon sunshine. The persimmons and aronia berries are getting ripe and the yellow blooms of the Jerusalem artichoke are as big as sunflowers.
In the back, a tiny pond is the social hub for a small flock of ducks, some white, some glistening black. Blue rabbits, nocturnal by nature, snooze the day away in hutches alongside the fence.
As busy as this scene appears, there’s even more going on behind the scenes, where West, along with a Springfield, Mo. business partner, leads a network of about 20 farms raising heritage-breed ducks for meat and eggs. That network, USA Duck Team, recently won two federal grants worth a combined $76.9 thousand.
The grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development will help the company sell more duck meat and eggs. Susan Sankey, deputy state director for USDA Rural Development in Kansas, visited West’s farm Thursday, Oct. 8, oversized check in hand, to present the award.
“The Value-Added Producer grants are exactly what’s been described here, to support our food supply and people who want to be part of our food supply,” Sankey said.
Grants to build and supply the marketplace
The two awards are for $19.9 thousand and $57 thousand. USA Duck Team must match each grant dollar for dollar, so the projects total $153.8 thousand.
The money will pay for marketing and advertising to raise awareness of the products, and will also pay for product processing to get the meat and eggs to market. The smaller award is set aside for working capital.
Information on ordering duck meat, eggs, or even live ducks to raise can be found at https://usaduckteam.com/products/.
The network beyond Westheight
The ducks on the backyard pond produce only a small share of what the grants cover. “A lot of that is produced off-site,” West said. “It’s not all done right here.”
West’s business partner is in Springfield, Mo. The rest of the product comes from the team members, a national network of heritage-breed farms. Its farms raise Cayuga, Ancona, Welsh Harlequin, Silver Appleyard, and other breeds. Member farms are in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and other states. All are certified under the National Poultry Improvement Plan, a federal and state program that tests flocks for disease.
The headquarters flock in KCK anchors the network’s Cayuga line. Its lead drake, Mr. Lemonade, won Best Old Drake at the 2024 American Poultry Association Annual National.
The group sells ducklings, eggs, and meat, and also developing duck jerky, confit, and preserved eggs. A North Central SARE Farmer/Rancher Grant also helps fund the group.
From homestead to business
USA Duck Team is not West’s first U.S. team. She competed in judo for the United States at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, placing 13th in the lightweight division. A year earlier, she won a silver medal at the Pan American Games.
Her start in farming was far more modest. She began by raising food for her own household.
“I’ve done urban farming for about six years, and raised ducks and now rabbits,” she said. “And I was doing it as a homesteader, and then we just got more and more able to share what we do with other people.”
The front yard also holds pawpaw and aronia berry. A USA Duck Team sign in the garden lists native and homesteader plants and invites passersby to ask for cuttings. The sign also carries the logos of Let’s Grow Wyandotte, Seed Savers KC, and the Kansas City Food Circle.
West is a 15-year resident of KCK. “I like the Westheight neighborhood, how it’s cohesive, and the neighborhood association really takes care of things,” she said. “And I like how all the houses are on the historic register.”
“In general, I like Wyandotte County because it’s diverse, and it has a lot of different perspectives, and there’s pretty good value for your money on home buying, although the property taxes keep going up and up and up,” West said.
Other Rural Development programs
Sankey said the agency offers much more than value-added grants. “The Rural Development Program for USDA has a lot of different grant programs, and we do loans as well,” she said. “There’s a broad spectrum of things that Rural Development supports.”
The agency runs more than 50 financial assistance programs. Among them are home loans for low-income rural families, loans and grants for clinics, fire stations, and food banks, and help for farmers and small businesses adding renewable energy or efficiency upgrades.
