The Iowa Department of Agriculture says it will continue a special program that directs state funds to six food banks across the state so they can buy fresh food from local producers. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says there is growing demand statewide for local foods.
The Choose Iowa Food Bank Program sent funding to food banks in 55 counties in the first year, allowing them to buy nearly half a million dollars’ worth of local food. The director of the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program food bank, Kim Guardado, says the program has helped stock the food bank’s shelves with good, healthy, colorful foods that will help feed some of the 344-thousand Iowans who don’t have enough to eat.
Her organization purchased more than 300-thousand dollars of local food in the program’s first year.
The Choose Iowa Farms to Food Banks program will direct another 200-thousand dollars to six food banks across the state.
