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. Stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook!
New upcoming event! The first farm crawl to be held in the greater Cedar Valley area will be held on Sunday, September 11th from 1:00-5:00 p.m. Learn how these 10 local farmers grow your food and manage their farms on this self-guided tour. You might even find fun kids' activities and local foods to buy and cook up for dinner! Visit the Center for Energy and Environmental Education's home page (www.ceee.uni.edu) for a map and details about each participating farm.
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.