Expanding local markets through linking institutional food buyers to local farmers and processors in Northeast Iowa

Objective 1: During 2002, we worked with seven institutions. For two of them, this was the first season; the rest had worked with us before. We have also involved more farmers and processors as a result of this SARE grant. At least three more farmers are selling to these institutions. Bartels Lutheran Home (in Waverly, IA) now buys two cows a month from their local meat locker. University of Northern Iowa staged two all-campus events featuring all-Iowa meals. All participating institutions made some local purchases.

In 2002, seven institutions purchased $200,000 of locally grown and processed food. These items were grown within a 100-mile radius of our metro area.

Five of these institutions have increased their purchases compared to the prior year. Here are a few notes:

Allen Hospital was doing great until they out-sourced the entire kitchen to a national labor chain. This shows that there will be ups and downs, people come and go, committed food service managers will be replaced with less committed ones, etc.

Rudy's Tacos remains at the high end of the percentage of local food purchases. Rudy's is not a "high end" restaurant - it is an ordinary place, with a solid and diverse customer base as well as a smoking section! It is the commitment of the owner to provide quality food to his customers.

University of Northern Iowa Dining Services, after a period of kitchen remodeling, is back on track. Two major all-Iowa meals were served during 2002 and UNI purchased their first whole cow from local inspected lockers.

Bartels Lutheran Home dramatically expanded their local food purchases in all areas. The staff are highly committed to this process.

Western Home, Roots Market (a small grocery store) and Garfield Café were all first time participants and made some local food purchases. They are committed to doing more.

The remaining institutions on our list did not place orders, and as best as we have determined, simply have not made it a priority to buy locally grown items.

Objective 2: The system of student intern assistants to the food buyers seems to work well - if you have a pool of such students.

In 2001, we worked with nine institutions: four hospitals, three colleges, one retirement home and one restaurant. These institutions had indicated willingness to purchase some local food. Some of them had purchased local food in prior years as well. In 2002, we worked with one hospital, two retirement homes, two restaurants, one college and one grocery store.

Student interns were hired to help each institution identify farmers near them and to place orders with the farmers on a weekly basis. We began 2001 with six interns and in 2002 we had three interns. They came from a variety of colleges in Iowa and Minnesota. Their training involved reading and site visits to several types of farms, processors, restaurants, and institutional buyers.

For 2002, we hired three interns who each performed a wide variety of tasks: developing weekly produce availability lists and faxing or e-mailing the lists to food buyers, publicizing this project within each institution, taking photos featuring many local farmers, assisting in planning all-Iowa meals in various institutions, and keeping purchasing records.

During the season, each intern was assigned to one or two institutions. On a weekly basis, we developed a "produce availability sheet" that was either faxed or e-mailed to the interested institutional buyers. The sheet included farmers names and phone numbers, items they had, and price. The food buyers then placed their orders with farmers and farmers delivered on specified dates.

The interns made sure the process was smooth, and they helped to develop promotional items such as posters and table tents for each institution's effort in local purchasing. In some cases, the interns staged special events. One intern developed a series of photographs of many of the farmers we work with. These photos were used in posters, table tents and other publicity pieces. During January and February of each year, the interns and other project staff went through the records of participating institutions to document local food purchases.

Objective 3: Project staff are in frequent communication with food buyers and farmers to make the changes needed to make the local buying process work. Commitment of the food service staff to the idea of local food is essential. From our experience, the greatest success has been in institutions with the most interest and commitment. Other challenges include distributor contracts, insurance, limited local supplies of fruit and vegetables, limited processing infrastructure, and the culture of pre-processed food. We documented our experiences with these and many other considerations. We continue to share our findings at local, state and national meetings, conferences, and in newsletters. We have developed a web site that includes much of our findings: www.uni.edu/ceee/foodproject.

We are well-connected to the national network of others doing similar work in other regions. Some recent invited presentations include Land Stewardship Project, MN; The Land Institute, KS; UNI Dining Services, Cedar Falls IA; Iowa Food Policy Council conference, IA; Northern Arizona University, AZ. Project staff have been collaborating with ISU Extension and local farms in exploring possibilities for freezing selected fruit and vegetables for later sales. We are also aiding Iowa's Governor in developing a plan to help Iowa's state institutions buy more of their food locally.

Other collaborative initiatives that have resulted from this SARE grant include: Working with ISU Extension on food systems development through their SARE PDP grants; we are working closely with Practical Farmers of Iowa in launching a "Buy Local Campaign" in northeast Iowa based the accomplishments of our SARE grant.