Kent Stones, Founder

Kent is just a little obsessed with local food.

In 2020, Kent’s Mom passed away at 95 years of age - remarkable given she lived with Hypertrophic CardioMyopathy and had a life expectancy of 70ish years. In her late 60s, when she began experiencing more severe symptoms, she dramatically changed the food she ate and her lifestyle. The result was she lived far beyond what was expected.

Her life inspired him to leave a lucrative position and start a food company that honored her legacy: Dorothy’s Power Foods. The flagship product was a bowl of ancient grains and super seeds she researched and concocted and ate almost every morning.

It launched at the beginning of the pandemic, and for two years, Kent toiled to make it work. In December 2022, the combination of supply chain limitations and delays, skyrocketing ingredient costs, and demand-killing food inflation made it impossible to continue.

Rather than return to the corporate world, he decided to help other small food makers thrive. His extensive background in business analysis and strategy, his unique ability to understand people and culture, and his experience of starting a food company provided him with a unique understanding of the foodways system. He realized he could help small food makers because he understood the cultural, behavioral, and structural problems that were holding them back.

KC Foodways is a consumer-focused initiative to ensure healthy, local food efficiently gets where it is needed. That’s not just about food insecurity or food waste; it’s about making sure that ANY local, healthy food can efficiently get to where there is demand - whether that be for basic food access, better nutrition, or community support. And that will happen by unifying the local food system.

Why does this matter?

Because, as Kent’s Mom showed, food is medicine. If we can increase the percentage of healthy, local food that people include in their diet, it will improve the health and well-being of Kansas Citians. And that will lead to lower healthcare costs, an improved environment, and a stronger local economy. That’s a win-win-win.

Contact Kent for more info.