KCSourceLink Blog

Shop local. We're calling it for the entire month of may--in honor of all the May flowers and celebrations and moms and graduates. And so we challenge you, dear reader, to to think local before you buy: shop local for mom this week, buy local for that special graduation gift, eat local when you're dining out or eating in.

And to help you get started, here are just a few ways and places you can buy local in Kansas City this month.

• Eat Local: Dig into some local chow from  KC’s food trucks  and  independent restaurants.
• Eat Fresh: Looking for local foods? Find it in Kansas and Missouri.
• Love You, Mom: Ink Magazine’s gift guide to handmade, local gifts on Etsy.
• Cash Mob!: Follow the Kansas City Metro Area Cash Mob, gather some buds and mob a local business with customers and cash.
• Maker Faire: Save the date for Maker Faire on June 23 and 24 and celebrate the things people create themselves — from new technology and electronic gizmos to urban farming and “slow-made” foods to homemade clothes, quilts and sculptures.
• Choose KC: ChooseKC is a B2B organization that is dedicated to promoting and sustaining independent and locally owned KC businesses.
• Love a Local Business: Enter your favorite local small business to win a $5,000 grant in Intuit’s Love a Local Business grant challenge.

Shop Small All Year Long

American Express has designated November 24 as Small Business Saturday, the SBA has grabbed a week in May and we’re claiming the whole month. But that doesn’t mean that shopping and buying local has to live only on one day, week or month.
 
American Express offers a Facebook widget that makes shopping local easy. Just enter your zip code to find popular small businesses on Facebook near you.

How Are You Keeping It Local?

And be sure to drop your shop local suggestions in the comments below or on our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/kcsourcelink. We'd love to hear and see how you're keeping it local this month.