Farm to ISU – The First Year

Iowa State University Dining Services is celebrating the anniversary of the start of its farm to college program – Farm to ISU. ISU Dining operates eight cafes, three residential dining halls, three catering operations, a food court, numerous vending machines, and five convenience stores. Altogether customers make over 50,000 transactions a day at these venues. Based on such high volumes of food purchased by ISU Dining ($6 million each year), there exists a great opportunity for local producers to market their products. Although a large market for local producers exists, there have been two main challenges in the coordination of the program in the first year: 1) developing lasting relationships with fruit and vegetable growers and 2) creating awareness and appreciation of local food among ISU Dining staff.

The Farm to ISU coordinator will be reflecting on the methods that were used to engage producers and to generate awareness among staff. Producers participated in informational meetings about the requirements to sell to ISU Dining and took tours of ISU Dining facilities. ISU Dining staff took part in presentations about the procurement of local meat and also was invited to visit local farms. Although a year has passed since the beginning of the program, the two challenges remain. It is imperative that ISU Dining continues to reach out to vegetable and fruit growers and that the staff continues to increase their awareness about the importance of farm to college programs. The difficulties of creating a program at a state institution are outlined in the case study that was written about this project, as well as stories of success. The hope is that the case study will give insight to other colleges about farm to college programs.

Contact:
Sue DeBlieck
1215 Friley Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50012
susandeb@iastate.edu
515-294-2892