Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development’s local foods program, Southern Iowa Local Foods Initiative (SILFI), was recently awarded a $24,000 specialty crop block grant.
Local foods coordinator, Alexi Groumoutis, will oversee the project that aims to increase millennial purchases of specialty crops at farmers’ markets in southern Iowa. She will be working with Corning, Creston and Osceola farmers’ markets on this one-year project which will include cooking classes for low-income families, farmers’ market cooking demonstrations, farmers’ market kids’ activities and promotional funds to advertise the markets.
Project partners are Parents as Teachers and MATURA’s WIC program. SILFI recently completed the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program grant, a two-year grant to grow farmers’ markets in southern Iowa.