Colleges look to get more Iowa food on the menu

Serving Iowa foods at college cafeterias will be the topic of a forum at Iowa State University today. Rich Pirog directs marketing and food system programs at the Leopold Center for sustainable agriculture at ISU. A UNI project began in 1997 and there are several campuses buying Iowa grown foods. Would an Iowa-only cafeteria mean pork chops three times a day?He says Iowa could supply the meat year round, fruits and vegetables only in summer and fall. Visiting speaker Nadeem Siddiqui worked at Grinnell College before managing the cafeteria at Cornell in New York, and he’ll be a presenter at the conference, titled “Farm to Fork.”Nadeem will talk about offering multicultural foods, and good service. The forum on locally grown foods at University campuses is at Mackay Hall on the ISU campus from 1:30 to 3:30 today.