Category: Announcements

Ames Distribution Now at Wheatsfield Coop!

Iowa Food Coop is excited to announce our Ames pick-up location is now at Wheatsfield Co-op! Starting this Thursday Ames members can pick-up their order from 4:30-5:30 PM.

“Wheatsfield Co-op is a convenient location for our members,” said IFC’s General Manager Gary Huber. “We’re also excited to be affiliated with another great cooperative business that has such a strong presence in Ames.”

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It’s fitting for the Co-ops to come together in October, since it is National Cooperative Business Month. “Since 1930, co-ops across the United States have convened every October to celebrate the cooperative movement’s history and economic impact on communities nationwide,” says the National Cooperative Business Association’s website. “The annual awareness month provides a key opportunity to reflect on the legacy of cooperative impact and celebrate the many ways co-ops are building better businesses, better communities and, ultimately, a better world.”

Thanks to members of both the Iowa Food Coop and Wheatsfield Co-op we are able to provide more fresh, healthy, and local food to families in central Iowa and continue to support farmers growing food sustainably. 

Wheatsfield Co-op has been a part of Ames since 1974, when a group of people with similar desires in food quality and whole food availability banded together to form a buying club. In 2002 they became a part of National Cooperative Grocers, which helped them grow their business and thrive. In 2009 they moved into a larger location at 413 Northwestern Avenue, where they are located today. You can read more about the history of Wheatsfield Co-op at their website.

Thank You Jennifer Miller!

Jenn MillerThe Iowa Food Co-op thanks Jennifer Miller, who has been our Communications Coordinator since April 2013. The reason is she’s decided to take a break to concentrate on making her farm – Clarion Sage Farm – a success.

Jen spent many hours helping the IFC mature into an amazing enterprise. Her work included getting us established on Facebook, planning many different events, visiting with producers and consumers, reaching out to media, and working on our e-newsletter, website and software.

One measure of her impact is that during her tenure we added 500 new members (now almost 1,100 total!). Another is that average sales per distribution grew from $7,765 the year before she started to $13,685 in her final year – an increase of almost $6,000 per distribution!

The IFC wouldn’t be where it is today without Jen’s efforts. For this we are extremely grateful.

And the icing on the cake: she helped us find our new Communications Coordinator, Ash Bruxvoort. We are lucky to have Ash to continue a great IFC tradition of reaching out to the IFC community and keeping our co-op growing!

Thank you Jen – we will be seeing you around!

 

Meet Ash Bruxvoort – IFC’s New Communications Coordinator!

We have some exciting news!

Jennifer Miller, who’s been our Communications Coordinator since April 2013, is moving on so she can focus on her farming enterprise (Clarion Sage Farm). Jennifer did an amazing job helping us grow. For that we are deeply grateful.

She also helped us find her replacement, so please help us welcome aboard Ash Bruxvoort!

Ash recently returned to the Des Moines area after taking a year to work on organic farms in western Iowa, northern California, and central New York. She grew up on a conventional farm in Mitchellville, Iowa, where she is starting her own homestead.

ashbruxvoortAsh has a BA in English, Nonprofit Management, and Philanthropy Communication from the University of Iowa. She is a passionate online marketer who specializes in nonprofit marketing and marketing for farms.

“When I lived in New York most of the food I ate was grown within fifteen miles of me. I never thought that kind of local diet was possible in Iowa until I discovered Iowa Food Co-op,” she said. “I’m thrilled to be a part of providing more local food options for consumers.”

Ash has done writing and online marketing for several organizations, including The Nature Conservancy in Iowa, the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network, and Local Foods Connection. Her writing about agriculture and conservation has appeared in Edible Omaha, Modern Farmer, Seedstock, and Precision Ag Magazine.

Ash will focus on streamlining our communications processes to ensure members can stay up to date with our cart cycle. She will also update our Facebook and Instagram, produce our e-newsletter, and update our website. We greatly appreciate her enthusiasm and skills. You can connect with her on Twitter or Instagram @campcreekpunk, or shoot her an email at ashbruxvoort.writer@gmail.com.

 

What you need to have the best 4th of July cookout:

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Your 4th of July BBQ Shopping List

Top ten items to have at your celebration

  1. BBQ Something (beef, pork, chicken, salmon, lamb) (and don’t forget the buns!)
  2. Potato salad (or new potatoes w/ green beans?)
  3. Baked beans (homemade, of course)
  4. Cole slaw (using fresh cabbage)
  5. Fresh Berry dessert (pies, crisps)
  6. Ice cream
  7. Sweet corn (early for Iowa sweet corn, but we have frozen, a perfect side dish)
  8. Pasta salad
  9. Fresh tomatoes (they’re here!)
  10. Strawberry or raspberry kombucha (a perfect substitute for lemonade)

It’s here! The Local Gift Guide

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Give the gift of local this year: we send this guide with the hope you’ll shop for locally sourced items from our 130 farmers and producers. Immediately below are some ideas, and further down are comments from members about their own gift selections. Enjoy!

(Shop at www.iowafood.coop until Sunday, December 14th, at midnight. Pick-up at five area locations on Thursday December 18th-20th.)

Gifts Under $30 (With many under $10!)

 

Member Picks

We asked what’s on their holiday shopping lists:
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Gift Basket 101

Put together your own pairings or choose from several farm-specific gift baskets. One-stop shopping at the click of a button.

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Holiday Table Essentials

To share the experience of local food with family + friends, start with the finest ingredients:
  • Smoked ham, special beef cuts, chicken/capon/turkey, lamb chops, and pork roasts make a prime centerpiece for celebratory meals
  • Free-range eggs are the secret to great holiday baking
  • Locally-milled flours are the building block of cookies and breads
  • Rich dairy products take your recipes to the next level
  • Herbed and peppered cheeses hold their own or add to any meal
  • Locally-grown produce, fresh or frozen, from cabbage to corn to butternut squash, celebrate Iowa’s harvest

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Happy holidays from the Iowa Food Cooperative!

2014 Annual Meeting

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Greetings IFC members!

Our annual meeting hosted by Eric and Julie Underberg of Agricultured was held on Nov 9 – due to early winter weather we had a small but lively crowd (45) – we enjoyed great food and even better camaraderie.

You can click on the links below to see our presentations in detail – a very brief over view is bulleted below

  • 44% growth in sales for 2014
  • 202 new members
  • 30 new producers (selling milk, cheese, dried beans, maple syrup, lots more produce to name a few of our new products)
  • new staff to help manage distribution and quality of products
  • 30% growth planned into 2015 budget
  • possibilities for future – expand wholesale market, onsite sales, community outreach, classes for members ……

We thank our out going board members Carrie Williams, Alexander Grgurich, Dan Beougher (7 Pines Farm) , and Eli Kalke (Fieldstone Farm) for their dedication to IFC, We welcome new board members Shelene Billups, Dale Morris , Tony Thompson (New Family Farm) and Jessica Krupicka (Heritage Hill Farm ) and we look forward to working with them and all of you as IFC moves forward.

(Click through the slides below to view the annual meeting presentation and a presentation from the general manager)

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Download a PDF of the annual presentation here.

Download a PDF of the manager’s report here.

See our 2014 Audit by clicking here.

On a personal note – I am now able to buy almost everything I need by shopping the coop. Shopping the coop brings me great joy because I know my dollars are going to good hard working people that really care about their products – and everything tastes so good . Many thanks to my IFC family – producers, consumers, volunteers – it takes us all!!!

Lisa Bean

 

 

 

 

Annual Meeting–Come one, come all!

 

You won't want to miss our annual meeting, especially the food! Come meet local food and folk. Saturday, November 15th!

You won’t want to miss our annual meeting, especially the food! Come meet local food and folk. Saturday, November 15th!

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Members! Please mark your calendars–our meeting is next Saturday, and verrrrry worth going to…Of course,  the meeting is interesting, but THE FOOD! Probably the best potluck you’ll ever attend. Local food tastes so good!

Click here to RSVP (Optional) and view more details at our Facebook event page

Click here to view the Google Map of the location

Meet our distribution team!

By Lisa Bean, Board President

Left to right: Lisa Bean, Board President; Gary Huber, General Manager; Kelly Bassett, Distribution Coordinator.

Left to right: Lisa Bean, Board President; Gary Huber, General Manager; Kelly Bassett, Distribution Coordinator.

 

Our new home base on Franklin is working out very nicely. It is great to have a stable spot. Our food co-op has grown 40% this fiscal year! Each distribution, somewhere around 2,000 items arrive at our Franklin location; items are then sorted and organized based on their final location. Growth in sales and product inventory means we face greater challenges at distribution and to meet those challenges we have hired two people to assist us.

 

Kelly Bassett, new Distribution Coordinator

Kelly Bassett, new Distribution Coordinator

Introducing Kelly Bassett, our new distribution coordinator. Kelly has been a volunteer at Franklin and at our Ankeny drop-off site. She holds a Bachelors of Science in microbiology from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a Masters in Food Science from Kansas State University. She has over eight years of experience in several different aspects of food chain including agriculture (eggs), processing (meat), and third party laboratory testing (all foods).

She has great organization skills and a passion for good quality foods. Her twin boys Isaiah and Jeremiah have been helping us out too and some of their art work is displayed on our refrigerators. Gary and I look forward to working with Kelly and our volunteers to perfect our delivery of products to each of our consumers at 6 locations – last year we experienced 40% growth which is absolutely great, but it comes with a few challenges that Kelly will help us meet. Welcome Kelly!

 

John Whitson's 'Flower Burrito'

John Whitson’s ‘Flower Burrito

Hi All!

Many of you know me as the producer member ‘Sunrise’.

I’ve been with the IFC since its inception.

After years of farmers markets and wholesale to stores,the IFC concept offered unique opportunities for connecting producers with customers.

The growth of the IFC over the last 5 years has been exciting!

Producer members have grown with customer members to the point where the variety and quantity of products every cycle is astounding.

This is only possible due to the growth of the customer members.

I’ve been fortunate to have time to participate as a distribution volunteer and witness the growth.

Also,resulting from this growth, QUALITY Assurance is now receiving a boost.

My new role is to zero in and focus on quality issues in order to identify and resolve quickly problems with products received by customer members.

We’ve relied on customer members contacting producer members about sub-par products and that is still encouraged.

Now we’ve  redoubled efforts to identify problems as they arrive at Franklin Ave.

as well as working with producer members to pre -empt issues.

Perfect Shopping Cycles are our no.1 goal.

Customer members and Producer members,we’re  all in this together for our common good.

Please feel free to contact me with ideas on how to improve as well as quality issues.

Many thanks!

John Whitson

Sunrise@minburncomm.net