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Through our Local Food Meal Kit’s project we are taking the guesswork out of what to cook, where to source it, and what’s in season. We know that convenience, time & price can be barriers to eating local and nutritious food. Our meal kits offer pre-portioned ingredients for a meal, along with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare it. The kits offer a convenient, cost & time-saving way to eat seasonal, nutrient dense, home-cooked meals and support the growth of our local food system. We have begun offering kits through the Iowa Food Cooperative and are currently developing partnerships with local shops, cafes and food pantries to expand the accessibility of the kits. We are also exploring community meal prep classes where attendees could come to prepare a variety of meals in bulk so they would have meals ready for the week, learning about nutrition, seasonality and local producers while enjoying time with others.
Interested in partnering? Contact events@cultivatefoodconnections.org
Online Shopping Cart Software
Another way we are working to improve markets that are efficient and profitable for producers is through online, year round sales of local food. We have developed an online shopping cart platform, currently being piloted at the Iowa Food Cooperative. The platform offers a unique way to access locally produced goods from a wide range of local producers on a bi-weekly basis. For producers, it offers a simple and efficient market and for members, all their products are brought to one location for a convenient all in one pick up or home/satellite site delivery. We are working to test and tweak this software so that it can soon be offered as a free software option for other local food markets.