DES MOINES, Iowa — There’s a new state initiative that aims to help both Iowa farmers and food banks.
Local 5 has more on how the state’s Choose Iowa program hopes to make a difference.
Choose Iowa launched at the state fair last year with a mission to grow the market for Iowa raised, grown and made products. Now, not too long before this year’s state fair, they’re expanding that mission through a pilot food purchasing program for food banks.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says Choose Iowa is the state’s signature brand for locally sourced products. Both farmers and businesses who are Choose Iowa members can use the logo for promotion.
“If they [consumers] see two products and one is from Iowa or one has the Iowa logo on it, they’re inclined to buy that one because they know it has a local impact," Naig said.
He believes that impact could get bigger with the recently launched food purchasing pilot program for food banks.
“One of the ways to do that is to create those institutional buyers. They are buying large quantities of food - get them connected locally with farms," Naig said.
How the program works is simple. The state is distributing $225,000 between six food banks and DMARC as an incentive to buy local. Participating food banks then promise to match that money.
It’s something DMARC, a participating food pantry network, is excited about because it says buying local can be a challenge.
In fact, in the last 12 months, DMARC says, of the one million or more pounds of produce its offered, half was donated, half was purchased, and only 5% percent of it was bought from Iowa producers.
“Sometimes those are really cost prohibitive items and we can’t get enough from just one farmer or two farmers to provide it across those 14 different pantries," DMARC's Marketing and Communication's Manager Blake Willadsen said.
Plus it allows them to add variety to their selection, especially with culturally specific items.
“We want to purchase things like okra. Imagine you’re someone who grew up down south and you’ve moved up here to Iowa and you’re going to a food pantry for the first time and you see okra," Willadsen said. "It just gives you a little taste of home."
Although exact farmers haven't signed onto the project yet - it already has one Iowa pork producer's stamp of approval.
“I think it will help a lot of local producers because the new state program helps subsidize what the food banks can purchase," Steve Kerns said.
While the program’s only in its pilot phase now, Naig hopes that it brings in the results they want so that it can become a long-term fixture of the state.
The program will focus on dairy products, meat, poultry, eggs, honey and produce.
Food banks are only allowed to use that distributed money to buy from Choose Iowa members. Click here, if you're interested in becoming a member.
Naig says the state is planning on starting a similar program but with school cafeterias early next year.
All this is happening with a backdrop of increasing food insecurity in Iowa.