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Mindful Nourishment Matters
Mindful Nourishment Matters is our community outreach initiative to provide education and resources for eaters as well as creating new market opportunities for farmers. We found a need for more awareness and education around locally and sustainably grown foods and how it can impact our health, environment and local economy.
Our Initiatives
Community Outreach
Outward-facing efforts to educate our local community on issues that drive support of local, sustainable farms. Activities will include educational events, cooking classes, nutrition education, and showcasing local producers. We will highlight issues of food security, access, and how agricultural practices affect our nutrition and environment. Our first event is a free film screening in February and we are already planning our second event for spring.
Garden Development
Wouldn't it be great to drive around town and see lots of home gardens? And for those who don't have space, some community gardens to share produce and knowledge, and support a food bank? We will be providing gardening support, space, guidance and have our sights set on seed and plant share events this Spring.
Food Hub
Food hubs facilitate the aggregation, marketing and/or distribution of products from local farmers to consumers (households, retailers, restaurants, institutions, and wholesalers) by developing scale efficiency and improving distribution. We may also offer commercial processing space, equipment, expertise and resources to support business development and growth. We are actively engaging with other food hubs in Iowa and farmers to learn best practices we can employ and the specific needs of our area to make it as effective as possible once we launch.
Food Market
A long term goal is to have retail space to aggregate local foods for convenient purchase by consumers. This would include an online store and storage space that will support and augment the food hub by extending shelf-life and adding an outlet for sales on a consistent basis. Retail space could also allow us to process local foods into more shelf stable products and preserve seasonal bounties. We can also tie in our food is medicine programs.
Food is Medicine programs
Food is Medicine is a spectrum of programs, services, and other interventions that recognize and respond to the critical link between nutrition and health, particularly within healthcare systems.
Food is Medicine interventions include the provision of foods that support health, such as medically tailored meals or groceries, or food assistance, such as vouchers for produce. Our first target program is a food prescription program that would use a local CSA to provide weekly vegetable boxes to participating members along with health coaching and nutrition education.