The first Local Food Festival began its adventure at Iowa State on Friday.

About 25 food vendors and clubs offered ISU students on Central Campus samples and information surrounding healthy eating.

Lynn Heuss, program assistant at the Leopold Center and a member of the leadership team that put together the food festival, said this event was a year in the making.

Heuss said the team hopes to fill up the entire sidewalk from Curtiss to Beardshear next year after filling about half of it Friday.

“We think it’s really cool to support this part of agriculture,” Heuss said.

Some of the local food vendors and clubs in attendance included the Wheatsfield Cooperative, the Salt and Pretzel Co., ISU Dining and Sustainable Agriculture Student Association.

Other vendors included ISU Extension and Outreach and larger corporations such as Anderson Erickson.

Christine Hradek, the vendor at the ISU Extension and Outreach booth, talked about the importance of outreach in the community.

“We are here to help families with low incomes ear the best they can,” Hradek said. The booth offered resources such as how to can, along with basic recipes for fruits and vegetables that low-income families might not know how to use.

SASA, a graduate student organization, was there to inform students about the Food at First (FAF) garden it has by Trinity Christian Reformed Church that donates hundreds of pounds of produce to local food pantries in Ames.

Garrett Ley, junior in agricultural business, was at the festival with a carnival food truck that he purchased in August. Ley started his own popcorn business called G-Pop’s Popcorn and he plans on selling his popcorn to local Hy-Vees and other businesses.

Ley sampled his Autumn Splendor popcorn, which is a mixture of caramel, toffee and raspberry popcorn, and his caramel apple popcorn, which is caramel and green apple popcorn.

The Salt and Pretzel Co. gave students samples of pretzels and sold whole pretzels.

Tammy Crowe, ISU alumnae, said the company moved back to Ames about two and half years ago after it was displaced by Hurricane Sandy. The Salt and Pretzel Co. hopes to get involved with catering events and more retail locations, according to its website.

Heuss and Merry Rankin, director of sustainability, hope to make the food festival an annual event. The idea for the festival arrived during a coffee meeting, and a team of six to eight people organized the event. 

Heuss said they hope to host more local produce and build awareness about food.