Feed Iowa First

Equitable land access (ela):feed iowa first equitable land access (ela) program provides field education, business formation and development, and partners with local organizations to increase marketing opportunities. Materials and knowledge from this project will be shared with community partners. Fif partners with the catherine mcauley refugee resettlement center to connect with farmers, african american business professionals for marketing, newbo city market for snap and double up food bucks market access, linn county for land leases, eastern iowa health center fqhc for health equity. These partnerships have been instrumental in building local food system capacity and connecting immigrant and underserved farmers to land and resources. Ela economic development also selects two farmers yearly to help develop their businesses and buffer the financial losses of starting a new crop. Many of these crops are culturally relevant crops that community members drive 8-hour round trip to buy. We support farmers as they work to see if plants grown worldwide will grow here in iowa, growing the farmers' business while improving access to culturally relevant food for underserved communities. Feed iowa first partners with kirkwood for greenhouse space to start more than 20,000 plants for the ela program. At the end of three years, ela farmers will be positioned to secure a federally subsidized farm loan and transition to buying or renting land.