Articles Tagged: Feed Iowa First

Mari Hunt Wassink combines regenerative farming and social justice, cultivating culturally important crops to make fresh, local food accessible to Eastern Iowans.

A Central City orchard needs to find a new buyer for about 50,000 pounds of apples and other small and new Iowa farmers worry about their expansion plans amid uncertainty about federal ag policies.

Food pantries and food-based nonprofits are being overwhelmed with increasing need, and many have been unable to keep up. Community food providers are worried that without better collaborative efforts between pantries, and increased support from local government, food is going to become increasingly difficult to access in Linn County.

Feed Iowa First has officially opened its new 17-acre site in partnership with Linn County Conservation at Wanatee Farm after moving out of its site at Dows Farm, which housed its Equitable Land Access program. Here’s what the nonprofit’s executive director had to say about the new site.

Mercy Medical Center announced it will award over $150,000 in grants to local nonprofits to bolster health equity. The grants go to programs that promote food access, health foods, mental health care access and housing affordability in the Corridor.

Feed Iowa First, a Linn County-based nonprofit, has launched its produce distribution for the 2023 season and will be bringing free produce to various locations across the county until late September.

Food banks and other food-based nonprofits are facing a crisis as inflation makes it harder to get food, and means more people are asking for food. At the same time, funding from Covid is disappearing and donations are decreasing.

Nonprofit Feed Iowa First may halt operations on the slice of land it subleases on Linn County’s Dows Farm “agri-community” development for use by underserved farmers, as the county isn’t planning to replace a potentially failing well that fuels farm operations.

St. Andrew Lutheran Church has harvested more than 5,000 pounds of tomatoes for those in need.

The expansion of a Feed Iowa First program helps immigrants to Iowa find an accessible entry to becoming full time farmers.

Feed Iowa First partnered with several Iowa organizations to bring to life a new mobile food pantry in the northwest quadrant. It will operate Tuesdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on a seasonal cycle.