Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Local food coordinator brings enthusiasm, experience

Back to Leopold Letter Fall 2012

From starting a meal program for homeless and low-income families to working with school gardens, women farmers and a food cooperative, Lynn Heuss brings a lifetime of food systems experience to her new job affiliated with the Leopold Center.

Heuss is assistant coordinator of the statewide Local Food and Farm Initiative (LFFI) program, led by Craig Chase who also directs the Leopold Center’s Marketing and Food Systems Initiative. She began work July 1 on a part-time appointment.

“My job here is to work on partnership development with the many different components that make up the local food system – corporations, producers, consumer groups, educational institutions – so we can work together to put more local food on more Iowa plates,” Heuss said.

All local food efforts – at the Leopold Center, the statewide LFFI program now in its second year, and Iowa State University Extension – have been united under one umbrella. Chase and Heuss are working with the Regional Food Systems Working Group, which brings together 17 different local food organizations throughout the state. They also are working with a new Iowa Food Systems Working Group, made up of educators and specialists within ISU Extension who are developing programs and resources.

Heuss will prepare program reports, write grants and help with communication among the various groups. She also is planning a two-day conference in March 2013.

Her connection with food security began in 2003, when she started Connection Café serving free meals in downtown Des Moines. Under her direction, the program expanded from initially offering meals three days a week to five days a week, providing food and other types of resources for more than 200 people.

Other past positions include development director at the Iowa Food Cooperative, working with beginning farmers in the Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter in Des Moines and as a resource for Midwest farm-to-school programs. She has an undergraduate degree in religion from Grandview College in Des Moines and has studied theology at Notre Dame.

She also is enrolled in the public policy master’s degree program at Iowa State and is a program coordinator for Women, Food and Agriculture Network. The WFAN program shares conservation resources with women landowners and connects them with women who want to start their own farming operation.

Back to Leopold Letter Fall 2012