Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
At Global Food Project, we work with gardeners from other countries who are looking to grow foods from "back home" here in their new home of Iowa. Even if someone has a lot of experience growing food, the environment for growing and selling food is very different in Iowa than in Sudan, Congo or Guatemala. If individuals from these communities can identify goals or gaps in their knowledge and Global Food Project can work to help them address these facts, they will become resources within their communities for how to grow the foods that are important to their communities here in Iowa. Rather than guessing what people might need and developing curriculum around that, we will work with growers who have a little bit of experience but are running into problems with pests, weeds, planting schedules, food safety practices, claiming independent income on taxes, or anything else, we can work to meet those specific and individualized problems to round out knowledge and build capacity among those growers.The overarching goal of the project is to help growers with a little bit of experience feel more comfortable and confident in their ability to effectively grow the foods their community is looking for and efficiently sell that food to those communities. This work is important because making the pool of local food producers more diverse will also diversify the pool of local food consumers. Supporting immigrant and refugees grow food in the United States is an ongoing effort, but it is spreading. We want to do our part to continue the efforts to break the mold on who can be a farmer and what a farm can look like.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The major goals of this project are to work with the group of international growers at Global Food Project to determine and address gaps in their understanding of growing and selling produce in the Iowa City area. Rather than develop a curriculum independent from the actual growers we are working with, we want to customize the educational offerings to the different growers based off their stated needs for the year. For example, one grower may wish to work closely with a local food hub to increase their wholesale capacity. Another grower may want to focus on growing techniques for culturally relevant crops that they've struggled with growing in the past. All growers will also work with staff to develop advertising and marketing for the onsite farmer's market that is operated by Global Food Project that will effectively target the communities that are looking for the crops they are growing and educate the broader public who are not familiar with these crops how to cook them. Global Food Project staff will work to make the market a place where people want to come shop and provide the necessary infrastructure to meet the economic needs of the vendors and the customers, through programs like SNAP, WIC and other creative solutions.
Project Methods
Through customized instruction to meet the stated goals of the growers we will be working with next year, we hope to increase their level of stated comfort and confidence in growing and selling the foods they want to grow in Iowa. Depending on the goals of the growers, efforts may include on-farm sessions either at our site or another farm and/or workshops on specific topics with Global Food Project staff or outside consultants, connection to existing print resources through agencies and extensions, or other modes of experiential, hands-on learning that are deemed appropriate to meet those goals. These efforts would be evaluated through one-on-one feedback for the individual person to see if the addressed goal was met and that person is now more comfortable and confident in that area of growing food.For example, if someone was interested in utilizing row cover for either season extension or pest control, before the season begins they could visit with a farmer in the area who is currently using it to talk to them about applications, use, storage, procurement, etc. Then the grower can make a plan about how it will be used for their own crops and touch base with staff or follow up with that farmer if questions arise during the season. These efforts would be evaluated in a one-on-one feedback session with the grower to see if they feel more comfortable and confident in utilizing row cover, whether they plan to continue to use it in the future, what difference it made for their crops, what they learned that they can communicate to others, etc.?