In the midst of record setting food pantry usage throughout the state, Growing Together Mini-Grants will provide fresh produce and nutrition education to pantries in 2023 through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach’s SNAP-Education program.
A total of 30 projects are being funded with the goal of increasing food security and promoting healthy food access and nutrition education. The Mini-Grant award to O’Brien County will help maintain donation gardens in Sanborn and Sheldon and collect excess home gardening produce donations. A container gardening class will be offered to food pantry clients at Love INC as well as “Pick Your Own” gardening opportunities.
This year, the Growing Together Iowa project will expand to five new counties.
Master Gardener volunteers plant donation gardens with partners, support their community with plant-a-row programs to get more produce into food pantries, and glean fresh produce from farmers markets and home gardeners. All produce is donated to local food pantries, food banks and other food distribution sites with accompanying nutrition education materials.
Growing Together Mini-Grants have been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s SNAP-Education since 2016. This year, additional funding for Growing Together Iowa was provided by Amerigroup. Iowa was the first state to create the Growing Together model, which has been replicated in Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Wyoming and Montana. Over the past seven years, the mini-grants have resulted in fruit and vegetable donations of almost 650,000 pounds in Iowa.
“This project mobilizes communities to help people experiencing food insecurity in a very tangible way,” said Katie Sorrell, extension education specialist and project coordinator for Growing Together. “Growing Together helps food pantries expand their offerings to include garden fresh fruits and vegetables.”
“It is exciting to see this program expanding into new areas of the state and increasing its impact,” said Alicia Herzog, Master Gardener program coordinator with ISU Extension and Outreach. “We know how taxed local food pantries are and the Master Gardener program is honored to play a role in helping our neighbors secure fresh produce.”
Other nearby counties receiving the Mini-Grants are Dickinson and Lyon. The grant to Dickinson will help expand the two donation gardens to include space for pantry clients to grow their own produce. The gardens benefit Upper Des Moines food pantry and several other food cupboards. In Lyon, the grant will expand the donation garden to meet the produce needs of ATLAS of Lyon County. Opportunities for food pantry clients will be provided including container gardening workshops, garden tours and helping hours.
The other counties receiving the Mini-Grants are Benton, Bremer, Calhoun, Cerro Gordo, Crawford, Dallas, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin (new), Harrison (new), Jasper, Johnson, Linn, Mitchell (new), Montgomery, Muscatine, Polk, Scott, Story, Tama, Wapello (new), Warren (new), Webster, Winneshiek and Wright.
For more information, Katie Sorrell can be reached at ksorrell@iastate.edu