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CHARLES CITY PRESS | WWW.CHARLESCITYPRESS.COM | FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2025
Local farm producers fill growing demand for local foods
Submitted photo The monthly Saturday Markets at SkyView Market draw a crowd and feature around 400 products from up to 46 producers.
By Dave Ruble Special to the Press
website or outreach programs. “We connect people with the resources they need,” DeVries said. The resources include tradi- tional meat, eggs and poultry; specialized items like nuts, fruit, maple syrup and baked goods; as well as breweries, lockers, self- pick farms and dozens of others. DeVries operates Woodside Acres southeast of Charles City, along with her husband, where they produce poultry, eggs and herbs. For Wendy Johnson and John- ny Rafkin of Jóia Food Farm west of Charles City, the story is much the same. “We moved back in 2010,” Johnson said. It was very hard to fi nd local food, so they started adding their own to the market. “Post-COVID, things really blew up and expanded for local food and funding,” she said. At Joia they raise heritage pigs, sheep, cattle, turkeys, guineas and chickens, as well as growing certi fi ed organic grains. They plant fruit and nut trees and every animal has a diverse diet. Their sheep and wool are certi- fi ed Animal Welfare Approved. For Johnson, Choose Iowa has been very supportive in the farm- to-table movement. Like Healthy Harvest, Choose Iowa aims to connect consumers to Iowa produce and food prod- ucts while expanding markets for Iowa farmers. It promotes foods, beverages and other agricultural products that are grown, raised or made within Iowa. Foods must meet or exceed minimum criteria to wear the Choose Iowa logo on their package or label.
As more and more Iowans are looking for options to purchase local food, a host of organiza- tions, both state and grassroots local, have been stepping in to fi ll the need. For Healthy Harvest of North Iowa, that’s been a goal for about 13 years. “About 10 years ago, there was a resurgence in interest in farm-to-table,” said Mallory DeVries. When DeVries and her hus- band moved their growing fam- ily to the Charles City area in 2018, “it wasn’t easy to fi nd lo- cal food,” she said. “We started growing our own food and the farm we purchased had a chicken coop. It really started as a hobby. I was really excited when I found Healthy Harvest.” Using her background in graphics, DeVries started work- ing with the organization. “When COVID hit, everything moved online,” she said. But whether online or in per- son, the goal is the same. “We connect producers with consumers,” said DeVries, who is now the communications di- rector for Healthy Harvest, a net- work of local food leaders across North Iowa including farm and food business owners, consum- ers, elected of fi cials, community leaders, public health, educa- tors, economic development personnel and more, serving a nine-county area. While the organization’s team is all remote, they’re tasked with staying involved in their com- munities, whether through their
“It’s a great resource,” John- son said. “Iowa is an ag state, and people have to search for lo- cal food products. (The products) are not more expensive, they’re just not in your local grocery store.” While Joia is 100 percent on- line and hasn’t had a brick-and- mortar store, it did apply for a grant last year that will allow it to build a freezer unit so it can help the Iowa Food Network with a drop-off point that can pull from 25 regional producers. However, currently many of the more than $3 million in grants funded by Regional Food Systems Infrastructure have been frozen at the federal level. The grants would support more than 300 local farmers, allowing them to increase their market access through the Iowa food hub network. “These investments help build farm businesses that don’t have access to the agriculture sub- sidies and safety nets given to commodity producers,” Johnson said. Over the past 20 to 30 years, Johnson said, “the thought was that you had to farm big. These programs help people realize they don’t need a half-million dollar combine. … Iowa needs more farmers, not fewer.” The small producers have a 10-fold ripple effect on Main Street businesses, Johnson said. Helping focus that effect is the North Iowa Local Food Coali- tion, part of Healthy Harvest, which offers access to healthy, locally grown foods in the nine-county area through food
banks, food pantries and schools. “The need is real,” Johnson said. Charles City Community De- velopment Director Mark Wicks sees it as a win-win situation. Main Street Charles City admin- isters the local farmers market. “It’s good for downtown, it’s good for Charles City,” Wicks said of the twice-weekly markets that run from early May to early October. Over the course of the summer, nearly 40 vendors offer food, produce, plants, honey, jewelry and other items. Besides farmers markets, more and more access points are pop- ping up across Iowa. Laura Cunningham and her husband, Aaron, operate Sky- View Market north of Nora Springs. For about 13 years the Cun- ninghams have been raising black Angus cattle and farming row crop acres of corn, rye and alfalfa to provide food for the herd, selling direct to the com- munity from their 1900-era barn storefront. “When COVID hit, grocery store shelves were bare of meat,” Laura Cunningham said. “People wanted beef. In three days, I sold out of 18 months of what I could produce. “We started calling around to see what was available. We started connecting with other producers.” In 2021, a Choose Iowa grant allowed the farm to add a walk- in cooler, and they became a hub for other small producers, offering walk-in shopping Fri- day afternoons and their popular
Submitted photo Business is brisk at SkyView Market during its monthly Saturday Markets. SkyView is a hub in the growing farm-to-table move- ment that connects small producers with the public in rural Iowa.
monthly Saturday Markets that include meat, honey, maple syr- up and more. “We offered a connection point,” Cunningham said. “We started out with six producers and now have 46 from maybe an 80-mile radius with over 400 products. It’s been so much fun helping other producers, watch- ing their businesses grow.” Last August, Choose Iowa began an annual “shop-hop” through North Iowa that con-
nected SkyView and several oth- er hubs. The North Iowa Local Food Trail is a self-guided tour that features on-farm stores and local food shops offering farm- raised meats, produce and hand- baked goods. “This has been developing over the last 10 years and real- ly gained steam” after COVID, Cunningham said. “It’s been really cool connecting people. There’s a real sense of commu- nity.”
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