Celebrate Iowa Local Food Day on September 25, 2024
Iowa Local Food Day on September 25, 2024, celebrates local food procurement in schools, colleges, and early care centers. This initiative, part of the broader efforts in National Farm to School Month in October, features Iowa-grown products in school menus.
Why is this important?
The purchase of locally grown and processed foods by institutions such as schools, hospitals, and grocers and by aggregators like food hubs is essential to strengthen local food systems. Investment and targeted technical support to make the connections between buyers and sellers supports farmers by ensuring consistent and reliable markets while providing healthy foods to our communities.
In 2023, the National School Lunch Program served 4.6 billion lunches and spent $17.2 billion (USDA ERS). These purchases can be a powerful lever for change, serving better food, promoting thriving communities, good jobs, local producers, and environmental stewardship.
Markets such as schools, grocers, and institutions play a role in farm profitability. Farms with diversified sales--including both direct sales and those to institutions--perform better than those with only one channel. (Jabolinski, McFadden, Bauman, Shideler, 2018).
Census data shows that in 2022, more farms are selling to stores, institutions, or food hubs than directly to consumers (NASS, 2022).
For more information on the importance of procurement by institutions, see Chapter 4 of Setting the Table for All Iowans.
