Field to Family 2016 Highlights
2016 Farm to School School garden workshop in partnership with Backyard Abundance and Kirkwood Community College had nearly 40 participants. Filmed and played on City Channel 4: Your Garden as Your Classroom: Teaching the Next Generation Held two Farmer Fairs reaching 649 students and 55 teachers. Farm to School recipient of the proceeds from the 1st Farm to Street Dinner to fund 2017 activities! We sourced 13,081 pounds of local food for the ICCSD school lunch menu! 12, 613 last year, total since Farm to School Started: 44, 196!
2016 Local Food Finder Maintained Local Farm listing on website, added new farmers for a total of 61 listings. Incorporated other local farmer listings, state and national, on website. Results from marketing studies of the new certified local label concept showed a strong case for a new marketing program! Engaged working group and applied for funding for design and program launch. After funding denial, re-engaged working group, recruiting Linn County to join effort. Statewide effort to replace Buy Fresh Buy Local has recently began. We joined that effort, while putting out an RFP for design and website services.
2016 Festival Our second annual Local Food Fair more than doubled audience from 2015! Offered first-ever Local Lunch and Learns as part of the Festival. Culinary Walk again broke attendance records in 2016! Included over 50 businesses, institutions, farmers and non-profits as part of the Festival in some way.
2016 Farm Stands in Food Deserts Awarded a contract with Johnson County to host Farm Stands in Food Deserts, offering free locally -grown produce, food samples plus food system and nutrition youth education. Held 6 total Farm Stands, 5 alongside the Crisis Center s Mobile Food Pantry, serving 152 families, an average of nearly 10 pounds of produce per family. Became a partner agency of Grow: Johnson County. First-time ever worked with Crisis Center. Served 152 families at 6 Farm Stands, distributing 1,485 of locally-grown fresh produce, an average of 10 pounds each family.
2016 Other Provided counsel to the Johnson County Food Policy Council s annual recommendations to the Board of Supervisors and to their Local Food Plan. Appointed to Iowa City Community School District s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Task Force. Program Director spoke to CIVIC audience of 11 international leaders in agriculture on community food systems. Served on planning committee with City of Iowa City, IC Downtown District and Johnson County for Farm to Street Dinner.
2017 Opportunities Support for Farm to School is strong. Annual school garden workshop set for April 8, 2017 at 1:00 PM at the Outdoor Classroom. The City of Iowa City Council has shown support for local foods with results. How can other cities show support, engage? In 2016, we connected with UI folks interested in participating in our annual Festival. Johnson County Board of Supervisors have started a plan for the County Poor Farm land as well as updating the Land Use Plan into the county s first-ever Comprehensive Plan. Statewide effort to replace Buy Fresh Buy Local could support our own work on a unique, regional label. Developed several new partners in late 2016 for our Farm Stands: Grow: Johnson County, Crisis Center, management at 4 mobile home parks located in farm deserts.
2017 Field to Family s Unique Role & Challenges Annual Festival, while successful, is ready for an overhaul. Farm to School Funding secured for 2017; Grant submitted that will fund the program from June 2017-June 2019. If not received, will need to raise at least $10K in additional funding for 2018. Farm Stands in demand, with audiences for F2F with new partners Sankofa Outreach Connection, The Dream Center, Grow: Johnson County and increased connection with Backyard Abundance. 501 C(4) status- Qualifying for several federal grants and able to promote policy changes and businesses, but donations are not tax deductible; Moving to create a 501 c(3) entity to support our food system and nutrition education work.
Breakout Sessions Choose one program area: Local Food Finder/ Grown Here, Made Here Group Moderators: Mark Quee, Wendy Zimmerman Farm to School Board Reps Group Moderators: Alicia Ambler & Jenni Mettenmeyer Farm Stands in Food Deserts Group Moderator: Miriam Avila, Katherine Mellen Local Foods Festival Group Moderators David Burt & Ofer Sivan All feedback is welcome!
Questions for each break-out 1. Farm to School Farmer Fairs Farm to School received a surge of support last year that will allow us to increase our programming in 2017. Our draft plan includes offering locally-sourced food samples in each elementary school cafeteria, hosting 4 Farmer Fairs plus our annual outdoor classroom workshop. Where should we offer Farmer Fairs? What should be added to our Farmer Fairs? What other ideas do you have for the program? 2. Farm to School Local Food Procurement ICCSD s goal is to increase the amount of locally-sourced foods on their menu 2% annually. This year we plan to substantially increase signage & publicity for local food items on the school lunch menu. What are your ideas as to how to increase promotion? What local food items are we missing? Farmers to engage? 3. Farm Stands in Food Deserts This is a new program for us and we want to include as many partners and audiences as possible. What individuals/ groups should we reach out too? We want to expand our youth food system and nutrition educational activities at the Farm Stands. Ideas for activities or individuals who can help with this? Ideal locations we are missing? 4. Local Foods Festival We are thinking about really changing it up this year with a one day, all local foods event! All free and educational. What could this look like?