In March 2007, ISU Dining began its program aimed at increasing the availability of local and organic foods.

Sue DeBlieck, graduate student in community in regional planning, was chosen as a senior last year to be coordinator for the project, Farm to ISU.

To the get the program underway, ISU Dining looked to institutions with existing local and organic foods programs, such as the University of Northern Iowa, Grinnell College and Yale University.

“[Yale] even produces a lot of their food right on campus,” DeBlieck said.

In the year since Farm to ISU started, DeBlieck has supervised the integration of meats, fruits and vegetables from local farmers into the meals served every day.

“The way we define local, it’s not about Iowa businesses – it’s about food products that can be traced to a farm that’s located in Iowa,” DeBlieck said.

Foods such as corn syrup and beef from slaughter houses are not considered local, she said, because they cannot be traced to local farms.

Some examples of local items include the beef entrees at the Union Drive Community Center and the pork from Burrito Works in the Memorial Union. Additionally, ISU Dining estimates it’s received more than 35,000 apples from one Iowa producer in the past year.

The Farm to ISU program has hit its first-year goal of 5 percent of ISU Dining products being locally or organically grown. The goal for four years from now is 35 percent.

Part of the reasoning for the emphasis on local and organic foods is Iowa State’s strong focus on agriculture.

“We’re teaching people to be farmers, but if the university isn’t buying food from those people, you know, there’s a real problem there,” DeBlieck said.

After one year, the program still runs into snags.

“There needs to be a lot more collaboration with other projects,” DeBlieck said. “There just aren’t enough students that know about this program or that are involved in it.”

To combat this, ISU Dining has advertised using table tents and fliers on campus, as well as meeting with growers on several occasions to inform them of Iowa State’s goals.

ISU Dining faces other obstacles that affect most other institutions the same way.

DeBlieck said schools have trouble purchasing produce in the summer, when growers are at the height of their production, but classes are limited.

Another problem is that small vegetable growers with established markets may be unwilling to sell to large institutions such as Iowa State.

The most obvious benefit of Farm to ISU, DeBlieck said, is the food.

“When you’re involved in this sort of thing, the food is just amazing,” DeBlieck said. “And it’s also all about relationships. Getting to know these farmers and getting to know the ISU Dining staff – and then connecting them – has really been an experience.”