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by Dr. Franchesca Zenitsky, DVM, MS
The IFC is not just good, local food for savvy people; it offers lots of wholesome food choices for our pets too! My own dogs and cats thrive on a raw diet and have been eating locally through the co-op for years. As a holistic veterinarian, I enthusiastically recommend it as a trusted resource to my clients who want to do the same for their pets.
A raw diet is really very simple and all the basics can be found at the IFC. The three primary daily foods include:
Muscle Meat with Fat – approximately 80% of daily rations
Organ Meat – approximately 10% of daily rations
Edible Bones like necks, backs, and wings – 7% to 13% of daily rations as tolerated
Variety is important for pets too, so I typically stock up on ground beef, whole chickens, all kinds of chicken parts including leg quarters, meaty backs and necks, luscious capon breasts, beef and chicken liver, and the grab bag from Griffieon Farm that may include liver, heart, tongue, lamb fries, or kidney from beef, pork, and lamb. I occasionally treat them to pork and lamb cuts. Other essential and beneficial foods include:
Tripe -15% to 18% of overall diet
Eggs – A couple times a week, preferably raw, the white and the yolk
Vegetables & Fruits – For dogs: 1½ % of diet; about 1/2 to 1 tbsp. of select vegetables per pound and a half of ground raw meat-organ-bone and an occasional select fruit treat. It is said that cats do not metabolize plant based foods well, but I sometimes give them veggies.
Recreational Bones – Several times a week for 20 to 30 minutes
I long for the day when green tripe will be offered through the IFC as part of my idealistic dream to expand their raw food offerings for pets, but until then I’ll crack open some gorgeous chicken and quail eggs into the food bowls. My dogs love the meaty bones from Griffieon Farm – and, we only feed raw bones, beef, chicken or otherwise. For veggies and fruits, we roll with what’s seasonal. My favorites include sweet potatoes, winter squash, apples, garlic, turnips, carrots, and other root veggies in the fall and winter and new potatoes, beans, broccoli, zucchini, cucumbers, melon, and berries in the spring and summer. Dark, leafy greens seem to be available most of the year now and they pack the most nutrition, so my guys get a lot of good greens.
To round out the diet, I add Calcium to balance Calcium/Phosphorus Ratio when feeding boneless meats, Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Kelp / Alfalfa or a Vitamin-Mineral Supplement, and Taurine – For cats: Cats cannot produce this essential amino acid. I have also used nettles, honey, and bee pollen from the IFC as supplements for my allergy dog, Tony.
And, where would life be without treats? Although my dogs, my patients, and I are heartbroken that Iowa Pet Adoptions has ceased production of their addictive dehydrated liver, I just found out that the IFC has a new producer of pet treats and we are testing them out now. I also like to treat my dogs and cats to IFC’s milk and yogurt, which they love. And, because cats need more fat in their diet, they all get a little bit of butter regularly. Don’t forget the fermented foods!
My belief is that the key to good nutrition for any species is eating a broad variety of biologically appropriate foods and the IFC has that covered. I love that I can feed my animals a fresh, wholesome, local diet from producers that I know and trust.
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Name/location:
Kim Jackson/OsceolaÂ
Originally from:
Always OsceolaÂ
I guess we started by getting a whole beef from my grandpa to fill our freezer each fall for a few years, and then, I was intrigued by the ‘eat local & know your farmer’ educational concept by the Farmer’s Markets (both in downtown Des Moines & then our local Clarke County Farmer’s market) and was soon a big fan but missed the product & thrill of the hunt in the off season until Shanen Ebersole introduced me to the IFC. Before all of this I never thought about all the extra ‘stuff’ in our food, never thought about our animals being given drugs to encourage growth or production, or chemicals on crops & the effects it all has on our bodies. Now I love knowing what I know about or foods.
How you heard about IFC:
Shanen Ebersole, Ebersole Cattle Company!! Â We had become friends through my childcare business & she has been instrumental in educating me about eating local, being healthy, as well as actively monitoring what we expose ourselves to in general. Â
At first the website was overwhelming, so I put off joining until I was finally brave enough to attend a December open house at the MHM location & was instantly hooked. Â Being able to know the producer, hear how the product was made/grown, & know that the money I spent was going to a family rather than a store, yea, sign me up. At that open house I think I bought jams to put in Christmas gifts, a pie for an upcoming family dinner and I think this is when I was introduced to the Huber Family’s awesome carrots. That seems like a really long time ago, when its really just been a lot of IFC orders ago.
I love seeing the IFC grow in producers as well as meeting new consumers. Â There are always new products added, new families or farms or products to learn about and try.
We heard that your daycare has the most local menu around:
The kids eat so much local & have no idea. Â The milk, the yogurt (that we often freeze into yogurt-cicles), veggies, potatoes, cheese curds, chicken, butter, popcorn, cornmeal, apples. They have some favorite products, so when we run out & have to wait for distribution day by subbing in grocery store product, they comment on the difference & how they can’t wait for Coop day.
How did you get involved in the Osceola location/help starting it:
When I started ordering I would space the orders out as my husband was picking them up on his way home from work, eventually, after a couple of years, I had eased him into picking up an order at almost every distribution. Â This sometimes meant him waiting around after work for the site to open, or helping carry in product or leaving work early to get my order. Keep in mind he still isn’t entirely on board, so he suggested I see what I could do to get an Osceola site going. Shanen invited me to see what I could do about finding a location. Â She then put me in contact with Pete & Cindy Woltz (Timber Ridge Cattle Company) who are located just south of Osceola so I would have a local board member for information, after a couple of failed attempts we unofficially put it on the back burner until Pete & Cindy offered to share their new retail space on the Osceola square.
How you see IFC and local foods movement growing in Osceola:
The Co-op collects a 15% fee on every item a producer sells and a 15% fee on every item a consumer buys. This system allows farmers to keep 85% of every dollar they sell (the average is a staggering 15% per dollar). We keep overhead low to maximize profits for our producers and farmers.
Members join by filling out a registration form and paying a one time, refundable $50 fee. The annual renewal fee is $10. EBT members do not pay any membership fees.
You can try our unique, online shopping experience free, for six months by filling out the membership form and selecting ‘Trial Membership’ under ‘Membership Types’. If you decide not to continue after six months, your membership will simply lapse. No payment information is collected, so it’s truly a no-strings-attached way to see if this way of buying groceries works for you!
If you want to stay in touch but aren’t ready to join, ‘Like’ our Facebook page and sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss out!
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It seems hard to believe that we moved to a new location, just a month ago – and we have completed two distributions there; it already feels like home. We have windows, easy access, and friendly neighbors, growing room so much potential. The comments from all of you – 100% positive so far so; all in all, the Board is very pleased with our new home.
We listened to what our consumers said they wanted in our last survey and we have added many new products – milk, ice cream, more cheeses, lots more produce, even worm castings, not to mention our many varied meat selections for summer grilling.
We have lots of people looking through the windows, thanks in part to the steady stream of patrons at the barber shop next door. We will have our sign within a month, but in addition we want to make our space warm, inviting, and improve our curb appeal.
So we could use some time and talent from our membership. If you are artistic or handy or just like to do that sort of thing, let us know so that as soon as we get our boxes unpacked we can start to DECORATE! Ideas we have been kicking around – wall and refrigerator art (pictures of producers, farms, logos, products), stenciling, etc, etc….
We also have a wish list which includes outdoor chairs and a small table, a small set of book shelves (for all our extra cookbooks), a couple of bar height stools, refrigerators/freezers to accommodate our ever growing product list, a tree for out front…..
Many thanks to all of you that helped us move and that help us with every distribution. Special thanks to our producers as well who work so hard to deliver good quality products for us all to enjoy.
Exciting times at IFC –
Email us below to lend your talent!
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We have big news for our members – we have a new home which is secure for the next three years! We have one more move to conquer and then we can relax and put our efforts where they will be of most benefit to our membership. Security feels really good.
As those of you that volunteer or pick up goods at Merle Hay Mall already know, our days there are numbered. As a matter of fact, this next week will be our last distribution from our new-old (original) site. We are most grateful to Merle Hay Mall for donating space to allow IFC to get started – we could not have done it with out their support.
Now, we are much bigger with great growth over the last year, and to continue this trend we needed a more permanent location.  Pete Woltz of Timber Ridge Cattle Company, Gary Huber, and I have been looking at options close to Merle Hay Mall as we know we need to stay close to where most of our consumers live, plus we want to maintain a central location for our producers.
After weeks of searching we have found the perfect place in Franklin Plaza. It is the old Marino’s Restaurant at 4944 Franklin – just east of the Franklin Public Library. The board has looked carefully at the costs and our cash position to make sure we can afford the move. Everything looked good, so Monday we made the unanimous decision to go ahead. Yesterday (May 1) we signed the lease.
What next?  We will have distribution this next week using our space at Merle Hay Mall. We will be calling for volunteers to help us remove some carpet and linoleum tile at 4944 Franklin.
The new floor will be put down May 13-16 and Tim Kruse of Green Light Renewables will install wiring for our equipment. We will be moving EVERYTHING – so please watch for volunteer requests. Our distribution on May 22 will take place from the new location.
The board knows that having a real home was the next step for IFC – we are excited and look forward to new adventures!
The plant sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Valley Community Center, located at 4444 Fuller Road in West Des Moines. The tours of Global Greens Farm will be held hourly starting at 10:30 a.m. This event is free and opened to the public.
RSVP here!
If you can’t live in a little village in Italy, you might as well live in Iowa. We might not have all the perks, but at least locally, handmade pasta is one of them. Meet Julie Parisi of Zaza’s Pasta, who says “I started Zaza’s Pastas because of my eagerness to share really good Italian food with, well, everyone, much like my grandmother used to do!” And that she does, now more so than ever: “I’m really pleased to announce that we’re incorporating local organic flours from Early Morning Harvest in our pastas from this point on!” Early Morning Harvest grows grain on their Panora farm, then mills them into flours, which Julie, of North Liberty, then uses to make her pasta. Just like in the Old World, the variety of flours available depended on the region, and this “Little Italy” scenario in Iowa is not much different. Whether the featured spring flavor, asparagus fettuccine, or the newly available artichoke orecchiette, Zaza’s is keeping the tradition alive and local.
