(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig has announced half a MILLION dollars’ worth of “Choose Iowa” grants are going to 30 Iowa-based operations that sell food and Iowa-made products. “Everything from retail stores in towns, on farms; expanded distribution into retail, restaurants, farmers markets. I mean, I think that’s what I want to stress here is that we’re seeing really a diversity of the types of businesses, the products, but also how consumers are getting a chance to interact with them.”
The 30 grant recipients are pledging to invest one-point-seven MILLION dollars in their businesses. The announcement was held in Slater in the future retail spot for Home Kneads — a business that makes sourdough bread. Mike Harris and his wife, Nina, plan to use the 25-thousand dollar grant to help buy new equipment, like new ovens and a van to distribute their bread. “Iowans want real Iowa products, real food,” Harris said. “We partner with companies like Fareway. They see value that we can bring to Iowans.”
Another 25-thousand dollar grant is going to Kittleson Brothers, a business in St. Ansgar, a century-old family business that raises potatoes and onions. In 2021, Adam Koch, a descendant of the founders, joined the business which is expanding its potato processing facility. “We are updating our potato facility, so the grant will be going toward our new potato wash line,” Koch said. “There will be some pretty big updates that we’re working on this summer and this will help us continue to grow and keep our product in Iowa.”
The company currently distributes potatoes and onions to 30 Iowa grocery stores. Jeff Hafner says the 19-thousand dollar “Choose Iowa” grant will help buy a refrigeration unit for a food distribution center called “That Iowa Girl” in Panora that ships products to seven Midwest states. “The value of these grants is huge, not only in the community, but in the networking on these small businesses,” Hafner said.
Buser’s Produce in Conesville is getting a 75-hundred dollar grant and owner Jordan Lyon, a partner in the operation, says the grant will be used to start selling the melons from his farm in the Des Moines metro. “I grew up in Conesville and I remember listening to the old guys talk about loading rail cars with watermelons in the rail yard there…It went from hundreds of railcars a day during the summer moving out of there to when I got into the industry we were going to a few farmers markets,” he said, “…and hopefully as we continue to expand, it’ll be available in every grocery store in the state of Iowa.”
The Rooster Ranch in Knoxville is building a commercial kitchen to make its jalapeno-based sweet relish called “Ranch Candy” and is getting a 15-thousand dollar state grant to support the project. Owner Jodi Barrett says moving production out of her home kitchen is just part of the project. “Last year we contracted with a neighboring farmer to grow our jalapeno plants. Last year he put in 200 jalapeno plants,” she said. “This year I’m happy to say he has started 1000 jalapeno plants and has committed to growing all the rest of the produce we use in our product — and who knew that good old Iowa soil can grow some really spicy peppers.”
Naig says these projects are responding to consumer demands. “We’ve got national survey work and we’ve even done some survey work here in Iowa,” Naig said. “80-plus percent of Iowans say they would go out of their way to ‘buy local’ and they’d even be willing to pay more for those products.”
