Winery, family farm receive equipment grants

DES MOINES — Fireside Winery, of Marengo, and Grimm Family Farm, of Williamsburg, will make improvements to their businesses with the help of federal funds administered by the state.

Both have been awarded grants through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure program.

Fireside Winery was awarded $74,000 to buy equipment to put wine in aluminum cans, which are more portable than bottles, according to a press release from the office of Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.

The Fireside project will attract new customers and increase demand, said the release. It is expected to increase market opportunities for other grape, rhubarb, honey and dandelion farmers.

Fireside will provide $8,200 in matching funds.

Grimm Family Farm will receive $50,000 to purchase a refrigerated delivery system to improve the quality and food safety of its potatoes and dry beans. The farm is the only supplier of dry beans in the state, according to the press release.

Grimm currently uses a non-refrigerated, multi-purpose vehicle to make deliveries to schools and food hubs. Bags of beans and potatoes are not protected from dust, heat or other debris, and Grimm cannot maintain the cold chain.

Grimm will purchase a slide-in refrigeration unit and a truck suitable to carry the box. This will allow Grimm to maintain the cold chain and improve food quality while making.

It will also increase capacity, allowing Grimm to make larger deliveries and serve a larger geographic area.

Grimm will provide $5,500 in matching funds.

Another 18 Iowa projects received equipment grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. The state required a 10% match.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship invested more than $5.2 million in 24 Iowa projects and other supply chain improvement initiatives through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant program which attempts to build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain by developing and expanding markets for Iowa’s small farms and food businesses.

The Department offered applications for two types of grants, a larger infrastructure grant and a smaller equipment grant, both of which require cost-share contributions by the applicant.

The Department received 60 eligible applications.

Many of the 24 selected projects will expand wholesale markets that serve schools and early care facilities as well as other institutional buyers, such as hospitals and colleges.

The projects will also help farms and small businesses gain access to grocers and support other intermediary markets such as food hubs, post-harvest processing facilities or other distribution networks, according to the Secretary of Agriculture’s office.

A portion of the overall investment, $997,040.00, will be invested in strengthening logistical connections between Iowa’s wholesale food hubs, which will lead to increased capacity, aggregation and distribution.

In coordination with the Iowa Food Hub Managers Working Group, which was organized in 2015 by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Iowa will invest in new software and the formulation of standard operating procedures for the Iowa Hub-to-Hub Network.

The plan also calls for hosting a Middle of the Supply Chain Buyer and Supplier Summit to build relationships between local food buyers and producers, and to share innovative improvements to Iowa’s food system infrastructure. A supply chain coordinator will also help build new markets and sales for Iowa’s food hub network and producers.

The RFSI program, which is funded through the USDA — Agriculture Marketing Service, is administered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship with operating assistance from Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development. Additional partners include Practical Farmers of Iowa and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.