Secretary Naig Awards 28 Choose Iowa Grants

Choose Iowa grants will help farmers, small businesses, and non-profits expand and diversify the availability of Iowa grown, raised, and processed products

DES MOINES, Iowa (March 7, 2023) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today announced that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has awarded 28 Choose Iowa cost-share grants to Iowa farmers, small businesses and non-profits totaling $463,000. The announcement was made during an event at Jasper Winery, one of the grant awardees.

These Choose Iowa cost-share grants were created to assist Iowa farmers, businesses and non-profits with their efforts to increase or diversify their agricultural product offerings, expand markets and shorten the supply chain.

“Choose Iowa is about connecting consumers to the great products that Iowans are growing, raising and processing in communities of all sizes across our state,” said Secretary Naig. “As Choose Iowa builds into an easily recognizable brand that can be used by farmers, producers, processors, farmers markets, food retailers and many others in the supply chain, these cost-share grants will help build capacity to meet the growing consumer demand for Iowa products.”

The grants will support a wide variety of projects, including cider production from Iowa grown apples, fruit and vegetable processing, cold storage for meat, expanded processing of dairy products, hydroponic lettuce and microgreens, Iowa grown flowers, beer production from Iowa honey and many more.

These cost-share dollars leverage additional private investment. The highly competitive grant application process has yielded grant requests totaling nearly $3.3 million during the first two years of the program, a number far exceeding available funding.

Year	Number of Projects Funded	Total Choose Iowa Grant Awards	Budget Totals of Funded Projects
2023	28	$463,000	$1,413,953
2022	13	$248,000	$852,456
Total	41	$711,000	$2,266,409

 

Choose Iowa grant allocations that were awarded today, include the following:

That Iowa Girl | Panora | $25,000
Increase warehouse capacity to expand markets for more small Iowa producers. | Total project budget: $65,701.50

Van Manen Sweet Corn & Fresh Produce | Kellogg | $25,000
Construct a processing facility with customer pick-up location and storage. | Total project budget: $65,441

The Lavender Farm at Sutliff, LLC | Lisbon | $6,000
Expand lavender processing capacity and offer value-added products. | Total project budget: $12,000

Echollective Farm | Mechanicsville | $16,000
Expand cold storage and add fruit and vegetable processing. | Total project budget: $38,287.34

Farm Story Meats | Ames | $25,000
Increase cold storage capacity for direct-to-consumer meat sales. | Total project budget: $55,374.32

Walker Homestead Farm & Winery, Inc. | Iowa City | $25,000
Increase wine production capacity utilizing Iowa grown grapes. | Total project budget: $78,879

Jasper Winery | Des Moines | $25,000
Add cider production capacity using Iowa grown apples. | Total project budget: $65,000

Field to Family | Iowa City | $25,000
Purchase a refrigerated truck to expand food hub operations and local food distribution. | Total project budget: $63,000

Over the Moon Farm & Flowers, LLC. | Coggon | $10,000
Establish and increase storage and distribution space for Iowa pasture-raised Pekin duck meat. | Total project budget: $20,676

Kittleson Brothers | St. Ansgar | $14,000
Expand cold storage and improve potato sizing and processing. | Total project budget: $28,000

Meat & Greet, LLC | Comanche | $25,000
Enable direct-to-consumer meat sales. | Total project budget: $74,900

Organic Greens, LLC | Kalona | $25,000
Enhance fruit and vegetable processing and expand cold storage capacity. | Total project budget: $57,894

Pleasant Grove Homestead | Montezuma | $25,000
Build cold storage and processing space for direct-to-consumer sales of pastured poultry, pork and honey. | Total project budget: $295,000

Urban Greens | Iowa City | $12,045
Improve processing and packaging equipment and cold storage capacity. | Total project budget: $24,090.58

Brewer Family Farms, LLC | Dallas Center | $14,960
Add value-added meats for schools through the Farm to School program. | Total project budget: $29,920

Brightside Aleworks | Altoona | $18,000
Add gluten-free brewing capacity utilizing Iowa honey. | Total project budget: $41,149.82

Noble Provisions, LLC | Griswold | $2,110
Expand meat subscription service to include direct-to-consumer sales. | Total project budget: $4,220

Central Iowa Shelter Services | Des Moines | $25,000
Add capabilities for online sales of tilapia and hydroponic lettuce. | Total project budget: $51,460

Andrew Pesek Farms | Coggon | $20,000
Incorporate tree transplanting equipment to diversify farm operations. | Total project budget: $40,000

Picket Fence Creamery, LLC | Woodward | $25,000
Increase production capacity for new value-added dairy products. | Total project budget: $50,000

Feed Iowa First | Cedar Rapids | $3,000
Purchase hoop house and small grain mill processing equipment for culturally relevant foods and tender greens. | Total project budget: $6,000

Twisted River Farm | Mitchell | $6,000
Establish an on-farm store; enhance vegetable processing and increase cold storage capacity. | Total project budget: $13,000

Clovergold Flower Farm | Newell | $3,700
Increase floral production and drought mitigation. | Total project budget: $8,000

Ditmars Orchard & Vineyard | Council Bluffs | $12,325
Purchase production efficiency equipment. | Total project budget: $75,000

Mossycup Farms | Clear Lake | $4,173
Upgrade on-farm commercial kitchen processing capacity from small batch to larger scale production and increase farm store capacity to offer additional value-added products. | Total project budget: $8,347.49

Lutheran Services in Iowa | Des Moines | $4,402
Increase produce processing capacity and enhance equipment for incubator farm produce raised by non-American born farmers. | Total project budget: $8,804.67

Jeff Loehr Farm | Moorland | $24,500
Purchase dedicated processing equipment enabling in-state processing of Kernza® perennial intermedia wheatgrass. | Total project budget: $53,970

Soldier Creek Winery | Fort Dodge | $16,204
Expand market and distribution of Iowa wines and food. | Total project budget: $53,970