Quad Cities Food Hub—Connecting producers to consumers through retail, educa-tion, and community outreach.

PARTNERSHIPS: Since opening our doors we have strived to create last-ing relationships within the community, such as free cooking class to the residents at 180 Zone, Humility of Mary and Family Resources to give community members from all walks of life access to fresh, local and afforda-ble food. We also partner up area hospitals, business and organization to teach, demonstrate and organize classes, events and seminars on local food.

PROJECT UPDATES: QCFH soft launched a Virtual Retail Store in Janu-ary. The full launch is expected to take place in November of 2017. Education Department released Autumn-Winter class schedule, tickets available now!

EVENTS: QCFH Autumn– Winter Classes September Natural Fabric Dyeing— September 14th Sewing 101– September 28th October Pumpkin Spice Granola & Almond Milk– October 10th Apple & Pumpkin Butter—October 17th November DIY Scarves & Winter Accessories– November 9th Autumn Harvest Brunch– November 12th Vegan Thanksgiving Dishes– November 16th

INQUIRIES: Please contact info@qcfoodhub.com or visit us at www.qcfoodhub.org for more information! Quad Cities Food Hub 421 West River Drive, Davenport, IA 52801 563-265-2455

Contact Information: Quad Cities Food Hub| Quad Cities | 421 W. River Drive, Davenport IA 52801|

info@qcfoodhub.com | 563-265-2455

Ray Kruse and Brittany Demezier are Food Systems Program Coordinators for Dubuque County. Dubuque Eats Well is the community coalition for the county and consists of producers, consumers, and institutions collaborating to grow an equitable and sustainable food system.

PARTNERSHIPS: Master Gardener SNAP Ed grant gardens are finishing up this month. The Dubuque Master Gardeners lead four community gardens that donated to multiple local food pantries. The Dubuque Eats Well Farm to Institution Team includes members from Mercy Hospital, ISU, ISU Extension and Outreach, Sinsinawa Mound Dominicans, Hy-Vee, the City of Dubuque, and the Iowa Food Hub. This group has come together to produce a Farm to Institution Workshop to help farmers interested in selling to institutions and those buyers interested purchasing from them. Issues like food safety and farm marketing will be covered, and extensive time for networking will be given.

PROJECT UPDATES:

Contact Information: Brittany Demezier & Ray Kruse| Region 11| Dubuque, IA

demezier@iastate.edu / rakruse@iastate.edu | 563-583-6496

September Local Foods Month– September is a busy month full of events focused on local food. Dubuque hosted its first-ever night farmers market. Harvest Fest highlighted the beginning farmers at the Sinsinawa Mound Collaborative Farm. The annual Farm to Table dinner was held on Sept 17. This upcoming weekend is farm tour weekend, where visitors can tour both rural and urban farming in the county. The month rounds out with a film screening on the life of Wendell Barry and a workshop for farmers and institutional buyers. Ray and Brittany are also taking a week in September to only eat locally produced foods. The food systems coordinators will be blogging their experiences and sharing their adventures on social media. Check out our website for more details! www.driftlessfarmcrawl.com

EVENTS: Sept 16-22 Eat Dubuque County! Week-long challenge to eat only locally produced foods #eatdubuque Sept 23-24 Farm Tour Weekend Sat 1PM-3PM DBQ Rescue Mission & Sun 1PM-4PM O’Connell Organic Acres Spend the weekend touring urban and rural agriculture in Dubuque County Sept 28 Farm to Institution Workshop 10AM-3PM Sinsinawa Mound, WI Workshop targeting farmers interested in selling wholesale or scaling up pro-duction and institutions interested in buying local

INQUIRIES: What is happening with “Buy Fresh Buy Local” re-branding?

Eat Greater Des Moines works to identify, develop, and connect resources support-ing the entire food life cycle in central Iowa. Lots of great things are happening!

EAT

GRE

ATER

D

ES M

OIN

ES

PARTNERSHIPS: Kitchen Connect new platform is live! Working with Jason Grimm to host a Food Entrepreneur Training and event in October.

Double Up Food Bucks—In partnership with Healthiest State Initiative, launched at 5 markets and 1 mobile grocery.

Iowa Hunger Coalition—new advocacy coalition of hunger fighting organizations 

PROJECT UPDATES: Garden Signage - Have purchased and distributed 40 garden signs for network. Garden Meet Ups - Hosted 3 garden meet ups in local gardens throughout summer.

Food Rescue - ChowBank 2.0 launched! New features include web access, email notifications and automatic tax receipts for donations.

Fresh Food. Friendly Neighbors Campaign -

distributed over 20,000 market listings in area.

EVENTS: Food Entrepreneur Training—October 11

Healthy Food Stakeholder Meeting– December 5

Feed Greater Des Moines— March 3, 2018

INQUIRIES: Interested in learning others experiences with Department of Inspections and Appeals when building/ opening a commercial kitchen space. Looking for others interested in new statewide hunger advocacy group 

Contact Information: Aubrey Alvarez | Region | 2704 Fleur Drive, Des Moines, IA 50321 |

aalvarez@eatgreaterdesmoines.org | 515-207-8908

Quad Cities Food Hub– Connecting producers to consumers through retail, education and community outreach

PARTNERSHIPS: Since opening our doors we have strived to create lasting relationships with the community, such as free cooking classes for to the residents at 180 Zone, Humility of Mary and Family Resources to give community members from all walks of life access to fresh, local and affordable food. We also partner up area hospitals, business and organizations to teach, demonstrate and organize classes, events and seminars on local food.

PROJECT UPDATES: QCFH soft launched a Virtual Retail Store in January. The full launch is expected to take place in November of 2017. The education department released Autumn-Winter class schedule, tickets are available Now!

EVENTS: September: Natural Fabric Dyeing– September 14th Sewing 101– September 28th October: Pumpkin Spice Granola & Almond Milk– October 10th Apple & Pumpkin Butter– October 17th November: DIY Scarves & Winter Accessories– November 9th Autumn Harvest Brunch– November 12th Vegan Thanksgiving Dishes– November 16th

Contact Information: Quad Cities Food Hub| Quad Cities| 421 W River Drive, Davenport, Iowa 52801

info@qcfoodhub.com | 563.265.2455

INQUIRIES Please contact info@qcfoodhub.com or visit us at www.qcfoodhub.org for more information!

Since 2011, Healthy Harvest of North Iowa has led the way as area producers, retailers, eating cen-

ters and companies join forces to support a local and regional food system.

RFSWG

HE

ALT

HY

HA

RV

ES

T O

F N

OR

TH

IO

WA

PARTNERSHIPS:

Local Food Coalition brings 20 partners together

quarterly, 5 priority project teams, ISU Community

Food System Program

Regional farmers markets - market to market col-

laboration, fi

Cerro Gordo County Public Health - Planning for

Farm to School program grant - 4 school districts.

PROJECT UPDATES:

Kid’s Cooking Class - Pilot program at two markets.

Great success!

Two new projects - Producer support & Cooking class

for pre diabetic audience.

EVENTS:

Field Days

Aug. 5 – Hancock Co. Fresh on the Farm Tour

Aug. 12 - PFI on food hub, Clear Lake

Farm to Fork Dinners

Aug. 24 - Mitchell Co. Farm to Fork

Aug. 30 - Worth Co. Farm to Fork

Sept. 19 - Hampton MainStreet Restaurant Crawl

Sept. 24 - Floyd Co. Farm to Fork

INQUIRIES:

Successful Farm to School programs

Effective local food conferences

Contact Information:

Jan Libbey | Healthy Harvest of North Iowa |

www.healthyharvestni.com | libbey.jan@gmail.com | 515/851-1690

Southern Iowa RC&D’s local food program, Southern Iowa Local Foods Initiative, is working to build healthier, more prosperous commu-nities by working to create vibrant, local foods systems. By supporting local farmers and growers, we can support sustainable food practices that improve food security, health, the environment, community ties and local commerce.

PARTNERSHIPS: Partners include the University of Iowa, who filmed a promotional video for the FMPP project, Iowa State University Extension, who’ve provided speakers for workshops and who’ve collaborated with coordinator on the Heddleson grant, a grant to create food safety posters for farmers’ market vendors and MATURA/WIC as well as many other community partners who volunteered at this year’s farmers’ market.

PROJECT UPDATES: Food Coordinator is wrapping up the 2015 FMPP Grant. She organized kids’ activities at this year’s farmers’ market in Creston, which turned out to be a huge success with 25-60 kids participating per activity. She also set up an information booth and wellness demo which were very well received. Food coordinator helped produce a promotional farmers market video filmed by the University of Iowa which can be found on SIRC&D’s webpage. She also wrote two publications: Beyond Farmers’ Markets: Other Ways to Access Locally Grown Foods Throughout the Year and Tips for Farmers Market Managers. SIRC&D was recently awarded the 2017 Specialty Crop Block Grant. Food Coordinator is on the executive committee for a project called Healthy Cooking Through Generations, a cooking project that pairs youth with seniors.

EVENTS: Food coordinator gave a presentation for the sixth year in a row at Osceola’s Annual Diversity Garden’s open house. Her honey presentation was accompanied by her homemade baklava.

Alexi Groumoutis | 609 New York Ave. Creston, IA 50801 | agroumoutis@hotmail.com| 641-782-4033

INQUIRIES Are there grants available to fund farmers’ market managers?

The Southwest Iowa Food and Farm Initiative is a network for food producers and consumers working to develop a healthy local

food system. SWIFFI works to build a sustainable regional food system that links production, processing, distribution, and

consumption; for better health, food security, stronger communities and economic development. SWIFFI is a multi-county

coalition of individuals and organizations working together with Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development. SWIFFI

works in Harrison, Shelby, Pottawattamie, Cass, Mills, Montgomery, Fremont, and Page counties.

SOUT

HW

EST

IOW

A FO

OD

AND

FAR

M IN

ITIA

TIVE

(SW

IFFI

)

PARTNERSHIPS: We are building relationships with school districts to expand Farm to School programs. We plan to co-ordinate a regional Farm to School workshop in 2018. We have been in contact with Center for Rural Affairs about partnership opportunities for Farm to School.

PROJECT UPDATES: We hosted the RFSWG Field Day in Shelby County in June. Participants visited farms, a food hub, and a restaurant in Shelby County and learned about some of the great work happening in our foodshed. Since many of our members are producers, we have not met for several months but plan to re-sume meetings this fall.

EVENTS: SWIFFI members are hosting Avoca Main Street’s Longest Table local food dinner, a Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Day, and Local Food & Farm Celebration (farm crawl) in Southwest Iowa the weekend of September 9-10. A Produce Safety Alli-ance Training will be held in Harlan on November 9.

Contact Information: Lance Brisbois | Southwest Iowa (SWIFFI) | Oakland, IA |

lance@goldenhillsrcd.org | 712-482-3029

INQUIRIES: