Northern Iowa
Food & Farm Partnership

Supporting the development of a local & regional food economy that positively impacts local farmers, consumers & businesses through education, collaboration, and economic development.

The Northern Iowa Food & Farm Partnership seeks to be part of a broad based effort to create a more local & regional food system that improves the economic viability & environmental sustainability of producers & communities throughout Iowa. 

History

The University of Northern Iowa Local Food Project began its work in 1997 and has created a strong foundation. Now, in order to significantly expand the scope of our work, the Northern Iowa Food & Farm Partnership (NIFFP) has been formed to spread the leadership and ownership of this important work by involving many stakeholders in our seven-county region (Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Grundy, and Tama).

Today

The Northern Iowa Food & Farm Partnership strengthens the local food economy in Iowa by:

• Publishing both a printed and an online directory of local growers and participating food businesses and institutions.
• Serving as a marketing resource to local growers, food businesses, and institutions.
• Notifying food buyers of  local food availability on a weekly basis.
• Promoting farmers markets, organizing farm tours, and sponsoring regional food festivals and related events.
• Managing our local Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign.
• Participating in regional food systems working groups, collaborating with other food systems communities of practice, and sharing our successes with other communities and policy makers.
• Securing funding to ensure our organization’s future and recruiting new food champions to join us in our work.

Join us!

We are looking for partners & supporters of our work. We invite growers, consumers, food & farm businesses, institutions, community leaders, and city/state government representatives to be a part of our efforts and help us accomplish our goals.

If you are interested in being involved, please contact Andrea Geary at andrea.geary@uni.edu or (319)273-7883.