Our Projects
SNAP Fund for the Iowa Food Coop
Want to make a tax exempt donation to our SNAP users fund? Donations to the SNAP fund allow us to support the Iowa Food Coop by waiving membership and consumer fees for SNAP users.
Community Education & Personal Connections
Our current food system is built on convenience and competitive pricing. For the full value of local foods on our health, economy, communities and environment to be more well known and for new healthy behaviors to be adopted we must create personal connections & convenient pathways for people to source and consume local foods.
Awareness and education are important pieces of growing our local food system, as it not only creates more income for producers, but also builds a community of consumers more deeply invested in supporting infrastructure and policies which benefit small scale, local producers.
We host events, workshops, and table events in order to spread the word about why supporting local producers is so important.
Do you have an idea for a partnership? Send us an email!
Convenient Pathways to Source Local Foods
Through our Local Food Meal Kit’s project we are taking the guesswork out of what to cook, where to source it, and what’s in season. We know that convenience, time & price can be barriers to eating local and nutritious food. Our meal kits offer pre-portioned ingredients for a meal, along with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare it. The kits offer a convenient, cost & time-saving way to eat seasonal, nutrient dense, home-cooked meals and support the growth of our local food system. We have begun offering kits through the Iowa Food Cooperative and are currently developing partnerships with local shops, cafes and food pantries to expand the accessibility of the kits. We are also exploring community meal prep classes where attendees could come to prepare a variety of meals in bulk so they would have meals ready for the week, learning about nutrition, seasonality and local producers while enjoying time with others.
Interested in partnering? Contact events@cultivatefoodconnections.org
Online Shopping Cart Software
Another way we are working to improve markets that are efficient and profitable for producers is through online, year round sales of local food. We have developed an online shopping cart platform, currently being piloted at the Iowa Food Cooperative. The platform offers a unique way to access locally produced goods from a wide range of local producers on a bi-weekly basis. For producers, it offers a simple and efficient market and for members, all their products are brought to one location for a convenient all in one pick up or home/satellite site delivery. We are working to test and tweak this software so that it can soon be offered as a free software option for other local food markets.
Access to local food
We are working to ensure the shopping cart platform will offer an efficient way for online local food markets to accept SNAP EBT and Double Up Food Bucks Dollars. And, we are working to spread the word about the variety of ways community members can access local food.
We are also creating tutorials and tailored supports for producers with a variety of backgrounds and languages to be able to sell through an online market.
