A Food Fair is scheduled for this coming weekend in Waterloo that’s designed to help bridge the connection between food vendors and consumers. It’s part of a yearlong project called Food Matters which aims to raise awareness and build partnerships.
Organizer Kamyar Enshayn says part of the plan is to increase access to healthy food closer to home. “In order to feed the world, we need to demonstrate that we can feed ourselves,” Enshayn says. “Over the years, for a variety of reasons, we’ve lost many elements of a rich, local food economy.”
Enshayn says food dollars invested wisely can build strong community relationships and decrease the reliance on far-away markets. He says he’s very encouraged about a new venture in the Marshalltown area. “So now they’re freezing apples and sweet corn and rhubarb and they’re selling to Hy-Vee,” Enshayn says. “This is a way of investing our food dollars in the lives of food and farm businesses around us.”
Community leaders, elected officials, school administrators and representatives of food-oriented businesses met on the University of Northern Iowa campus on Friday. The discussion focused on planting, growing and harvesting local food.