For the ISU Extension Office’s Farm, Food and Enterprise program and North Iowa fresh program saw increased progress in 2020. Their farm to school initiative had a breakthrough year in 2020. Suppot from the Iowa Local Produce & Protein Program helped engage many schools for the first time. Many had expressed interest in the past but didn’t know where to begin.

Nine schools and three early childhood centers across the region sourced $25,000 worth of local farm products from the program between March and December of 2020. That is a dramatic increase from the previous year. In 2019, the program worked with three districts in the region and sold just $1,700 of locally sourced food to schools.