To increase access to education around local food, a nonprofit organization has launched a pilot program bringing a wide variety of produce downtown every Thursday afternoon.
Field to Family is an Iowa City-based nonprofit organization that offers a weekly online farmer’s market, running from Earth Day until the winter solstice every year, according to Field to Family Operations Coordinator Olivia Bohlman.
The online market opens at 5 p.m. on Sunday evenings and closes at noon on Tuesdays. Customers can then choose between picking up their online order from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays at 1051 Hwy. 6 in Iowa City or the organization’s newest pickup location at the Iowa City Senior Center.
During the pickup hours at the senior center, customers can either walk up or drive through the alley between the Tower Place Parking Garage and the Iowa City Senior Center and exit on Gilbert Street.
The organization’s newest pickup location is a pilot program and will run until Thursday, Sept. 26, Field to Family Program Manager Emily Roberts said. The senior center offered their facilities at no cost to the organization.
Bohlman said they expanded to the senior center because they wanted to create more access points for people to get produce.
“It worked out they had the most important thing for us, like refrigerated [and] frozen stores,” she said. “They’ve been a really great partner. Our mission is around increasing access to education around local food, so we’ve also been able to do some info sessions about how to order with us and how to connect with local farmers.”
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Roberts said once the pilot program is finished, Field to Family will analyze the results and determine whether or not the program will run again in the future. There has been about $1,000 worth of local foods distributed from the senior center since the program got its start in August.
Chris Smith, a volunteer with Field to Family, said she has greatly benefited from the senior center drop off location.
“Working at the senior center means I can get there and back on the bus and combine that trip with other errands/activities,” Smith wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan. “Eating local is important to me and has been for a number of years.”
Smith also said the online market offers food within 100 miles of Linn and Johnson counties and gives customers the ability to try interesting local foods they might not otherwise find.
Nancy Halder of Iowa City recalls her mother’s fondness for eating locally grown food when she was growing up and how that ideal has stuck with her throughout her adult life.
“Field to Family really replicates that sense of eating very local, and also the food tastes better,” she said. “We were delighted when they started the program at the senior center because we live on the northside of Iowa City and we were headed over to the southside. Now it’s just so much easier to get to the senior center, so I’m hoping once the pilot program is over they will continue to do it.”
Although the pilot program only runs until Sept. 26 and the online market is only open until the winter solstice, Field to Family offers an online wholesale option year-round, Bohlman said, generally offering dairy and meat.