Field to Family’s online farmers market and food hub is now multilingual! Community members and institutions have the option to choose from the following languages while ordering local food from Iowa farmers and local food-based businesses: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic or Swahili.
Online ordering at orders.fieldtofamily.org begins every Monday at 8 AM through noon on Tuesdays for Thursday pick up at the Field to Family warehouse in the South District, along the mural on the Pepperwood Plaza building. Field to Family serves school districts, food pantries, University of Iowa, small businesses and other institutions wholesale local foods year-round, with the Online Farmers Market operating from Earth Day to Winter Solstice. To order, log in at orders.fieldtofamily.org weekly, choosing from diverse seasonal crops and agricultural products from 20+ local growers and vendors, including local fruit, vegetables, honey, milk, butter, eggs, dairy, eggs, grains, meat, mushrooms and foods made from those products..
“Creating innovative ways to expand access to local foods is a top priority for Field to Family.” said Field to Family Executive Director Michelle Kenyon. “As an organization committed to creating a stronger community-based food system, partnering with local growers to facilitate connections with the community is paramount. Providing local foods from local growers in multiple languages increases the ability for more community members to choose locally grown foods.”
The translation module for Field to Family’s online platform was incorporated as part of a grant from Iowa City’s Climate Action Committee in order to encourage climate friendly diets by increasing access to locally-grown food, as part of the City’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. As part of the project, Field to Family piloted a food access program that began last fall by partnering with community organizations providing direct services to underestimated and underserved clients in Johnson County who are structurally excluded from governmental support programs to facilitate group and individual orders on the Online Farmers Market.
The translation module also supports the goals of the organization’s grant from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative grant under the USDA Rural Development office that provides funding to expand access to healthy and local foods in the South District of Iowa City, increase partnerships with BIPOC Iowa farmers and expand promotion and marketing for seasonal local foods available through Field to Family’s food hub. As part of the HFFI grant, as well as other USDA programs, Field to Family has worked to develop new and expanded partnerships with Iowa producers who meet the USDA’s definition of socially disadvantaged, which include: BIPOC, women, veterans and LGBT producers. The organization has purchased from 25 Iowa farmers who meet this criteria since the Fall of 2022 and has plans in place to increase it to 47 by the end of 2023.
2023 has been a groundbreaking year so far for Field to Family. As a nonprofit educational food hub, the number of school districts served increased from 9 to 36 through a USDA Local Food For Schools program during the 2022-2023 school year, which has facilitated over $172,000 of local foods through Field to Family with more from other state food hub partners. In addition, through the USDA’s Local Food Procurement Agreement program, Field to Family has partnered with 17 food access agencies to provide local foods to address food insecurity in Iowa. Both of these programs are continuing the second half of 2023 through March of 2024 with over $345,000 of local food purchases expected from our region alone.
For the organization to manage the expanded volume of local foods to meet increased demand, Field to Family doubled the number of its weekly delivery days, grew its service area, increased the number of Iowa farmer partners and the types of local foods purchased. To manage the growth, Field to Family has hired new staff, increased food storage capacity and incorporated other warehousing improvements. Support from state, county, regional and local partners enabled Field to Family to adapt to the growth. Johnson County Board of Supervisors continue to support the organization’s work through an Economic Development Block Grant. The organization partnered with other Iowa food hubs to supplement sourcing and distribution and with community partners to provide increased frozen storage as needed. In addition, Field to Family received a 2022 grant from the Community Foundation of Johnson County and a Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) Speciality Crop grant to support its operations. Field to Family is now working to raise matching funds for a Choose Iowa Grant that will allow for the purchase of a refrigerated box truck to increase delivery capacity from their current refrigerated cargo van.
“Building a more community-based food system that is resilient, accessible and inclusive requires all of us to act.” Kenyon said. “Choosing local is an investment in Iowa growers and local food-based businesses as well as a cleaner, healthier environment and a stronger local economy by increasing the number of entrepreneurs, jobs and food security in our region. Enabling more community members from diverse backgrounds to access our food hub and online farmers market makes Iowa local food more available and reduces the amount of food we are importing from other regions and countries.”