Iowa State launches Farm to ISU program
AMES, Iowa — Food fights are breaking out in college cafeterias across the state.
While students, staff and consumers are not physically throwing food, some are fighting for more Iowa-grown foods on the menu.
In February 2007, the dining service at Iowa State University announced it would launch a Farm to ISU program that would focus on serving more local and sustainable foods.
With support from the sustainable ag community surrounding Ames and leaders at ISU Dining, the program set up guidelines for buying local foods. Tours and workshops were organized to branch out to producers, said Sue DeBlieck, the Farm to ISU program coordinator.
“Since the beginning of Farm to ISU, we’ve had an amazing amount of successes in purchasing local foods,” added DeBlieck, who spoke at a recent workshop hosted by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. The center provided the grant for coordination of the project. “People were really excited about it.”
ISU Dining operates eight cafes, three residential dining halls, three catering operations, a food court, numerous vending machines and five convenience stores, which account for 50,000 transactions each day and about $6 million in annual food purchases.
This school year, from August through January, ISU Dining spent $300,000, or 5 percent of its budget, on local and sustainable foods. As the semester progresses, those purchases may account for as much as 8 percent.
The school partnered with local producers to buy some meat, honey, apples and dairy from Anderson Erickson Dairy, which provides milk, of which 90 percent is locally sourced.
ISU Dining was able to purchase 250 cases from one apple producer this fall, but finding enough produce to meet demand is difficult, DeBlieck said.
“One of the main challenges is we couldn’t find enough fruits and vegetables. There are plenty at farmers markets but not enough to support demand at ISU Dining,” she said.
DeBlieck noted a need for mid-size farms that can produce enough to contract with ISU Dining.
“Both parties are saying, ‘Well are you going to be able to produce for me?’ And they are saying, ‘Are you going to be able to buy from me?’ ”
Before the program’s launch, ISU Dining had been purchasing some local foods. But Farm to ISU expanded the focus from merely local to include more organic and sustainable foods.
Organizers say the program will provide:
• marketing and profitability opportunities to Iowa farmers and processors.
• a healthy and affordable diet of fresh local foods when in season.
• safe and healthy foods grown with a commitment to environmental stewardship.
• contributions to the vitality of rural and urban communities
• an opportunity for ISU and communities to connect.
Supplemented by another grant from the Leopold Center, leaders at the University of Iowa are working on a similar initiative to enhance the regional food system and improve sustainability there, said Leah Wilson, the former coordinator for the Johnson County Local Food Alliance.
“There are a lot of producers who want to get in the University of Iowa, not for school but as a market for their products,” she said.
“One of the reasons for doing this research is, obviously, institutions have a lot of buying power. If we can replace even as little as 5 percent, assuming a $7 million budget, that is $350,000 (to regional producers).”
A diverse working group of people met five times over 11 months.
The group developed a unified definition of sustainability and drafted a five-year strategic plan that addressed three key areas: human health and well-being, ecological health and regional prosperity, Wilson said.
Skepticism and lack of support from students and administration are holding back the movements at both universities, leaders said.
The U of I group found it was hard to overcome skepticism, lack of direction and the lack of organized demand from students, Wilson said.
Even when the working group received support from the upper administration, they found the dining service was hard to convince without demand from students.
“I have discovered when the middle won’t budge, you have to pull from the top and push from the bottom,” she says. “Overcoming these hurdles required a lot of flexibility.”
At ISU, the movement is also targeting students.
“Some students say they want this, but they need to say it louder,” DeBlieck said.
Organizers believe that if students had a better understanding of where food comes from and of Iowa agriculture, they would be more inclined to care about their food choices and the choice their dining service provides.
The group has developed catchy posters to be displayed in dining halls and around campus.
One features a tomato with a mileage odometer. It reads: “You wouldn’t buy a new car with high mileage, so why eat food with high miles?”
Another poster highlights Iowa’s meat industry. It reads: “Yo, where’d ya get the meat? For every Iowan, Iowa farmers produce one beef (cattle), five pigs, 1/2 a chicken, one turkey and 365 dozen eggs each year. Eat your part!”