Locally grown food critical in fight against food insecurity

Partnerships forging paths to make locally grown food more accessible

By Michael Crumb

“It’s really reworking and rethinking the model of getting local food into communities.” -- Carter Oswood, Feed Iowa First

From conserving small parcels of land for sustainable agriculture and corporate partnerships where open land is turned into vegetable garden plots to the development of “agricommunities,” efforts to open up land to help feed the food insecure in Iowa are growing.

There are many models that can be used to fight food insecurity, and supporting local farmers and establishing local farms that supply communities with fresh produce have become an effective tool used to deliver healthy food to those who may otherwise go without, said Carter Oswood, executive director of Cedar Rapids-based Feed Iowa First, which distributes food to neighborhoods and area food pantries.

Oswood said part of the solution to food insecurity is finding people -- and the land -- to grow food closer to communities where it is needed most.

“One-half of our mission is to combat food insecurity by growing food, but 50% of our mission is to also grow farmers,” he said. 

Iowa Stops Hunger

Food insecurity doesn’t just mean that someone doesn’t have enough food to eat. Too often, it exists because a person is low-income and the food choices they make are calorie-dense and low in nutrition, which can lead to health problems, such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Nearly 600,000 Iowans -- or almost 1 in 5 -- have experienced food insecurity in recent months, an increase of about 67% since the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Iowa, according to data from Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks across the country. Nationally, that number has risen from 37 million people before the pandemic to about 54 million today.

Business Publications Corp. and its publications -- including the Business Record, dsm  Magazine and ia Magazine -- have launched a yearlong campaign, Iowa Stops Hunger, to bring attention to the plight of those who are food insecure, and to shed light on those who have made it their mission to help. And we hope that over the next year we will inspire you to join us and seek answers that can lead to change.

Forging food partnerships

Whether it be collaborating with businesses, churches or private property owners, there are models being used to grow fresh produce locally. But how do they work?

Oswood said it depends on the property owner, but no matter the model, “it dramatically helps,” and the goal is the same: Get fresh, healthy food in the hands of people who need it most.

Feed Iowa First works with property owners who have open land through its Grow Don’t Mow initiative, to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables for distribution communitywide. Another model is collecting produce not sold through Community Supported Agriculture shares, and distributing it free in the community. Some farmers donate what they can’t sell at farmers markets. Others partner with nonprofits to harvest produce still sitting in the fields.

“We have a gleaning initiative where ... it’s not economically viable for them to harvest the excess crop ... and we come in with volunteers and glean that off the land and redistribute that,” Oswood said.

Feed Iowa First also has a “Veggie Van,” a large 12-seat van that’s been retrofitted with shelves and bins for produce that is taken out into the community for distribution. 

Nicki Ross, executive director of Table to Table, a Johnson County-based nonprofit food rescue organization, said her organization finds food where it’s going to go to waste, generally from grocery stores, food warehouses and a local creamery. That food is collected while it’s still good, and it’s delivered to food pantries, hot meal sites and shelters in Johnson County. 

Table to Table also launched the statewide Iowa Gleaning Network, which works with local farmers who have unharvested produce that would go to waste. Local nonprofits partner with farmers to pick produce and distribute it to people in need, Ross said.

There is also Grow Johnson County, a farm that specifically grows produce for the people the organization serves. 

“It’s not just about access to any kind of food, but healthy food,” Ross said. “Take that a step further to food people know what to do with, and that’s way more likely [to happen] if food is grown locally.”

She also said locally produced food can take the pressure off the national food system, which has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

“But if we grew it locally, we can rely on that food, whether there is a national shortage or not,” Ross said.

Conserving land for local food production

Growing fresh produce to fight food insecurity can’t happen unless land is made available, and the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, or SILT, has been working to identify and obtain land for the development of small, sustainable farms.

Suzan Erem, executive director of SILT, said the organization was formed specifically to protect land for “nature-friendly table food farming.”

So far, 935 acres have been protected statewide. Four more farms are expected to be protected this year, pushing the number of acres to more than 1,000, Erem said.

She said the importance of conserving these small parcels of land, ranging from just over 20 acres to about 170 acres, is how efficiently they can produce food to feed large numbers of people.

Erem cited an Iowa State University study that shows an acre of land can produce enough food to feed 200 people and meet their daily minimum nutritional requirements.

“So it doesn’t take a lot to feed people fresh, healthy food,” she said.

Land protectors

Lyle Luzum donated 170 acres from his family’s farm in northeast Iowa to SILT to ensure it would be conserved to produce sustainably grown food. Doing that also helped continue his family’s support of using conservation techniques to protect the environment.

Bob Winchell is donating 25 acres of land near Earlham. He’s doing it as part of settling his wife Thelma’s estate. Her wish, he said, was that the land be used for sustainable agriculture, rather than be developed for residential or commercial use.

While fighting food insecurity wasn’t the driving force behind their decisions to donate land to SILT, both men say they hope food produced on the land can help.

“If you don’t have affordable land, you can’t grow the food,” Luzum said. “If you want to have good local food available, you can’t just wish it into existence, you have to do something about it.”

Luzum said the work being done by SILT could also help improve the supply chain that is needed to get fresh, healthy food in the hands of those who need it most, by growing food closer to population hubs.

He and others say most of the food consumed in Iowa is grown elsewhere and is shipped as far as 1,500 miles to stores and markets in the state. By contrast, growing food locally can reduce that distance to an average of about 40 miles.

The land Winchell is donating is adjacent to a church he and his wife, who went by T.C., attended. She purchased it to keep it from being developed. Now, nearly two years after her death, Winchell contacted SILT because of its work to conserve land for sustainable agriculture, something his wife felt strongly about.

Winchell sees local food farms as a key piece of the puzzle in the fight against food insecurity. And that, he said, would make his wife happy.

Agricommunities

The development of agricommunities, or “agrihoods,” is a new concept in Iowa that some people hope will help get locally grown produce in the hands of people who are food insecure.

These neighborhoods are generally mixed housing developments adjacent to land that is conserved for sustainable farming.

Linn County is planning an agricommunity southeast of Cedar Rapids. It includes 179 acres that are bordered by Squaw Creek. Under the plan, the creek corridor would be protected, with about 45 acres intended for the local food farm. In between would be a mixed-housing development.

The county acquired the land in 2017 as part of a plan to expand Squaw Creek Park, said Les Beck, Linn County’s director of planning.

According to Beck, an agricommunity, while a new idea, would fit in with the goals of the county’s comprehensive plan.

Beck said the county is working with SILT in hopes of creating an opportunity for a beginning farmer to have access to land. The county is also working with Feed Iowa First to get plots started for growing produce, he said.

“So we really think this is a great opportunity to provide access to land for a beginning farmer, to provide access to healthy foods … and to provide an interaction between people who live in the development and the farmer, or people in the surrounding area, through working on the farm, having food celebrations, gardening classes, whatever it may be.”

Work is underway to get zoning approvals in place, and requests for proposals from developers have been sent. A developer could be selected by the end of October with an agreement in place by the end of November, Beck said.

Once done, the creek area would be maintained by county conservation. The farm component would be managed by SILT until it contracts with a farmer to take it over. The housing component would be owned by the developer who would sell the properties.

Beck said the agricommunity concept has been proved to work in other parts of the country, and he visited an agrihood near Ottawa, Canada, that is similar to what will be developed near Cedar Rapids.

He said that while there has been some skepticism and opposition to the plan, there has also been “really enthusiastic responses and feedback from other people about the project.”

“It provides a model for a farmer or nonprofit to produce food for people, and then provides a mechanism to provide access to that food,” he said.

Fighting food insecurity isn’t just about access; it’s also about education

Another benefit to growing food locally is the ability to educate people about the food that is available to them, Oswood said.

“Food insecurity is too narrowly defined when it’s only lack of access to [fresh, healthy food] because of financial means, or because of choice,” he said. 

All too often, Oswood said, when fresh produce is available, people only choose what they know, such as tomatoes, because they aren’t familiar with how other produce, such as eggplants or parsnips, can be used.

He said increased education is needed to broaden the selection of produce people may select.

“Lack of access to nutritional education is a huge problem that perpetuates food insecurity,” Oswood said.