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New leader takes over at Iowa Food Bank Association

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An organization that fights hunger across the state has a new leader. The Iowa Food Bank Association used today’s opening of World Food Prize events in Des Moines to introduce a new executive director.

Regenea Hurte says she faces a significant challenge. “We have about 10 percent of the population of Iowa that is facing hunger or food insecurity…food insecurity is simply defined as not knowing where your next meal is going to come from,” Hurte told Radio Iowa.

Hurte spent the past 13 years in Virginia. In addition to overseeing the Iowa Food Bank Association, Hurte will lead a new group called the Iowa Hunger Coalition. According to Hurte, the IHC will combine the efforts of multiple agencies around the state that are working to feed the hungry.

“And giving them a place to utilize their voice – whether it be advocacy, education, or just letting the everyday person who happens to be facing hunger know that there are folks out here who support you, who care about you, and want to make sure you don’t ever have to worry about food again,” Hurte said.

Regenea Hurte

The state’s eight food banks distributed over 26 million pounds of food last year. Hurte has noticed Iowans are very generous, but adds there’s always room for more volunteers and donations.

“The donation spirit is definitely good in Iowa. Before I got here, I heard about Iowa nice and now that I’m here, I know it’s real,” Hurte said. “But, the need is sustained. Despite the 26 million pounds of food, there were still over 60 million meals missed last year. So, we need to all work together…to make sure this does not continue in our world.”

Hurte’s husband, Vernon, became the associate vice president and dean of students at Iowa State University in July. The couple moved to Ames with their two children earlier this year.

Bill tries to help farmers find markets for locally-grown food

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Vegetables

New legislation moving through Congress is designed to expand markets for farmers in Iowa and nationwide. It’s called the Local Food and Regional Market Supply or FARMS Act.

Anna Johnson, a policy program associate with the Center for Rural Affairs, says the bill aims to help producers sell locally. “This bill does three things to help local foods,” Johnson says. “The first thing is, it helps farmers reach new markets, and then it increases access to healthy foods for low-income populations, and the third thing is that it strengthens the infrastructure for local foods to reach market.”

The bill also proposes giving school districts more leeway in buying from local sources. She explains more about how it would boost access to healthy foods for people in low-income brackets.

“U.S.D.A. has a program called the Seniors Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program, which helps seniors access fresh, healthy food at farmer’s markets,” Johnson says. “One of the proposals here is to expand that to also be available to low-income veterans. That will not only help out veterans, it would also expand the markets for producers.”

Johnson says parts of the bill could be included in the 2018 Farm Bill that’s being crafted now. She says recent years have been tight for agriculture and this would help.

“Farmers who are selling into local markets have been expanding,” Johnson says. “This would help address a couple of those bottlenecks or limitations to existing supply chains that they’re running into that are keeping them from expanding their businesses and keeping additional farmers from entering into these channels.”

Johnson says the bill also would expand loan and grant opportunities through the Farm Service Agency, which could help to increase meat and dairy processing capabilities for small producers. The Center for Rural Affairs is based in Lyons, Nebraska.

(Thanks to Learfield’s Mike Loizzo)

Grid Iron Grill in Webster city has top tenderloin

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A restaurant in north-central Iowa this year’s king of the breaded pork tenderloin.

The Iowa Pork Producers Association announced today the Grid Iron Grill in Webster City has the state’s best pork sandwich for 2017. Owner Burke Risetter is thrilled with the title and says it all starts with top quality Iowa-grown pork.

“It’s an everyday process,” Risetter says. “We shop a certain product, a center-cut pork loin product is what we’re always looking for. It just yields out better. It’s got a great flavor.”

There were more than 3,000 nominations this year for 271 different establishments across Iowa. A panel judged 43 restaurants this summer on the quality of the pork, taste, physical characteristics and eating experience. Risetter says his staff has been specially-trained to make this Iowa delicacy.

“We treat it with a lot of TLC as far as the trimming and the cutting and the tenderizing,” Risetter says. “Just from start to finish, it’s handled with care. We’ve learned from some of the best people in this pork business in making the tenderloin, some secrets that they’ve taught us.”

The Grid Iron Grill first opened for business in 2008. The eatery serves about 400 tenderloins each week and Risetter says winning this state title is a tremendous honor. He notes, he knew the winner was being named today. “I’m on Cloud Nine,” he says. “I heard that and couldn’t wait and hardly slept last night. My Cubs won last night and this honor this morning, I don’t know what’s next. I couldn’t be happier and I couldn’t be more proud of our team here at the restaurant.”

The Grid Iron Grill will receive a check for $500, a plaque and a large banner to display. The runner-up was the Northside Café in Winterset. It will receive a check for $250 and a plaque. The Buffalo Tavern in Burlington, Lake View’s Thirsty Carp and the Double Dip in Chariton rounded out the top five finalists.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

Iowa groups join ‘Clean It Up Tyson’ campaign

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Susan Heathcote

The Iowa Environmental Council, the Des Moines Water Works and 18 central Iowa businesses have joined a coalition urging Tyson Foods to adopt new land-use rules for producers who supply livestock to Tyson slaughtering plants.

“Unfortunately, the meat industry is currently driving production practices of feed grains that pollute our waterways with excess fertilizer pollutants,” said Elise Peterson-Trujillo, a Des Moines-based organizer for Mighty Earth, an environmental group headquartered in Washington, D.C. “Tyson Foods is the company most responsible for driving these polluting practices.”

Tyson is the country’s largest meat company, producing about one out of every five pounds of meat purchased by American consumers. Susan Heathcote, the water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council, said if Tyson required producers to plant oats or other cover crops on harvested corn and soybean fields, nitrate run-off could be reduced by as much as 40 percent.

“We really want to continue to make sure that we have a productive agricultural landscape,” Heathcote said today. “It’s a big part of our economy, but we need to do that in a way that doesn’t add to the water quality problems, especially nitrate in our drinking water is a big issue in Iowa.”

Heathcote spoke this morning during a news conference in Des Moines that was organized by the “Mighty Earth” group. Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe also spoke at the event, which was held on a Des Moines River bank.

“Look out at that water,” Stowe said. “It looks more like cappuccino than it does drinking water. That’s because it has suspended solids. A lot of soils and a lot of nutrients associated with the soils are coming into our water because of land practices, but it’s also full of bacteria and the bacteria, to a large extent, is coming from livestock rearing.”

The “Clean It Up, Tyson” campaign was launched in August. A spokesperson for Tyson Foods said this summer that the company doesn’t agree with Mighty Earth’s “characterization” of Tyson’s operations, but “shares its interest in protecting the environment.”

The company issued a new statement Thursday morning, accusing Mighty Earth of “making misleading claims about our company, which is committed to continuous environmental improvement. Their focus is pollution from crop production, but they overlook the many ways crops are used including human consumption and biofuel.”

A Tyson spokeswoman said the company is “collaborating with a variety of stakeholders, including public interest groups and trade associations” because it will take more than “just one company” to achieve “real change”

Tyson has meat processing facilities in Council Bluffs, Waterloo, Storm Lake, Perry and Columbus Junction.

(This story was updated at 10:29 a.m. on 10/12/2017 with additional information)

New Ottumwa McDonald’s features upgraded technology for ordering

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A touchscreen at the Ottumwa McDonald’s.

What’s being billed as “the McDonald’s of the future” is coming to southeast Iowa.

A new restaurant in the global chain will hold its grand opening Friday in Ottumwa featuring several upgrades in technology. Donna Mann, who owns the Ottumwa franchise and seven other locations in Iowa, says the new style of restaurant is just the third to open in the state.

“We were going to be the first and our construction didn’t go as fast as we had hoped so now we’re the third,” Mann says. “Soon, in the Midwest region, which is Minneapolis, Iowa, Wisconsin and some other states, they will soon have 10 or 12 of these. By about 2020,

New Ottumwa McDonald’s.

every McDonald’s restaurant will be upgraded in some way.” Mann says the tech upgrades at the restaurant include several large touch-screens that resemble giant smartphones.

“We’ve added kiosks for those who would like to place their own order,” Mann says. “The younger generations especially likes to play with that. We will still have crew at the counter in case people prefer to place an order that way.”

After placing a dine-in order, you’ll get a number on a plastic tent that has blue-tooth technology embedded, so the server will know exactly where you’re seated. A recent survey released by Junior Achievement of Central Iowa found 77 percent of parents surveyed were concerned about their kids being able to find decent jobs due to so much automation.

Mann responded to the survey, saying the new kiosks may actually result in the restaurant needing more employees. “This is a convenience for our customers,” she says. “They don’t have to use that if they don’t like. But, by adding these, we’ve added four new touch-points for people to order, so more people can order at the same time. That creates more pressure in the kitchen area, so we need more people working in the kitchen area. We’re also offering table service where we will deliver your meal to your table. That requires more personnel.”

The new restaurant in Ottumwa replaces a McDonald’s location that was built in the late 1970s. It opens at 5 A.M. Friday with special drawings and other festivities.

(By Nick Davis, KBIZ, Ottumwa)

First Main Street Iowa Restaurant Week ready to kick off

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Food from Smokin Gs Barbecue in Marshalltown.

More than 150 restaurants across the state are involved in an upcoming event organized by the Iowa Tourism Office.

The inaugural Main Street Iowa Restaurant Week begins Friday and includes eateries in 16 towns and cities. Shawna Lode, with the Iowa Tourism Office, says each community will offer special menus and rewards.

“We want to give Iowans and our visitors a chance to get out and explore the restaurants and foods that are unique to Iowa,” Lode said. The event runs 10 days — through September 24.

“We wanted to give people an opportunity to visit as many restaurants as the can,” Lode said. “We know when people travel they want to eat where the locals eat.” The communities involved in Main Street Iowa Restaurant Week include Avoca, Burlington, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Fort Madison, Greenfield, Hampton, Marshalltown, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, Osceola, Oskaloosa, Spencer, Waterloo, West Branch, West Des Moines and Woodbine.

 

Iowa helps Japan launch its first bacon festival

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Organizers of the world’s largest bacon festival, held every winter here in Iowa, are launching the first-ever bacon festival in Japan — in Iowa’s sister state of Yamanashi.

Brooks Reynolds, chairman of the Iowa Bacon Board and co-founder of the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, says they’re donating at least one-thousand pounds of Iowa bacon to jump-start the Japanese event in November.

“Twenty percent of Iowa pork is already sent to Japan. They’re one of the largest importers of Iowa pork,” Reynolds says. “We just thought why not try to do what we do here in Iowa — over there?”

The Japan Bacon Festival will take place in Kofu, the capital city of Yamanashi Prefecture on November 3rd. Those who attend will get to sample Japanese and American-style bacon. There will also be bacon-inspired contests, beverages, music, a chef exchange, and more.

Reynolds says, “We’re going to have 20 different food vendors using bacon in various ways, whether it’s bacon yakitori, bacon ramen, or fun, interesting bacon sushi items.” The Iowans have launched successful bacon festivals elsewhere, including in Keystone, Colorado and in Reykjavik, Iceland. Reynolds says the large shipment of bacon to Japan will arrive with specialty cookbooks to assure the delicacy is prepared just right, a combination of crispy with a little bit of chewy.

“I’m going over for 11 days so I’ll be in the Kofu area for a week, working with the various food vendors,” Reynolds says. “If they have any questions or need any help, hopefully I’ll teach them the right way to cook quality bacon.” The popularity of the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, held in downtown Des Moines, has continued growing exponentially year after year.

“We started in 2008 with 200 people and for the first six years, we doubled, going from 200 to 400 to 800 to 2,000 to 4,000 to 8,000,” Reynolds says. “This year was our 10th year and we had 11,000 people from 40 states and seven different countries attend the largest bacon festival in the world.” Next year’s bacon festival is set for February 17th at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

The Japan Bacon Festival was inspired by a historic humanitarian effort in 1959. Japan was devastated by two huge typhoons and Iowa’s response was to airlift 36 breeding hogs and ship 100,000 bushels of corn to help with the recovery.

The so-called Iowa Hog Lift is credited with setting the stage for Iowa and Yamanashi becoming Sister States by formal agreement, opening markets in Japan for U.S. goods and services, and initiating agricultural cooperative programs between the two nations.

Iowa’s economy, Illinois taxes and the heat impact Casey’s Q1 earnings

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The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience story chain reported a drop in earnings in the first quarter of this year compared to last year of 24 cents.

CEO Terry Handley told investors during a conference call that changes to the company’s stock incentive program and an increases in the tax rates in Illinois played a big part in the drop. Handley the economy also played a role — as the sales of prepared food items like pizza were up only 3.7%. That was well below the 5 to 7% increase they had hoped to see.

“We believe this pressure is related to the agricultural economy in our market area and the continued spread between food at home and food away,” Handley says. “Another contributing factor was the excessive heat during the month of July.” Chief financial officer Bill Walljasper says there was a definite impact from the warm weather.

“July actually was a negative customer count for us. Typically that is a very high customer count month for us,” Walljasper says. “That kind of permeated across all lines of our categories, especially in the prepared food categories. We just didn’t have people getting out and about. Certainly that was affected, especially in the pizza line of our business.” Handley says they are taking steps to adjust to the economic pressures.

“In the current environment we recognize that our customer has become more value conscious,” according to Handley. “In light of this, we will build upon our existing value-added offerings in this category along with new seasonal items that we anticipate will help lift the overall prepared food sales.” Handley says gas sales continued to benefit from low prices and were up 1.7% at existing stores in the quarter. The company made a little more than 19 cents on each of the 565 million gallons of gas it sold.

Overall, the company reported that the earnings per share in the first quarter were $1.46 in the first quarter, compared to $1.70 for the same quarter last year.

Meals from the Heartland needs more volunteers for upcoming event

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Volunteers packing meals.

Meals from the Heartland is looking for some more volunteers for its 10th annual event next week where millions of meals are packaged.

Executive Director Susan Bunz says it’s easy to volunteer. “You can go to our website at www.mealsfromtheheartland.org. It will provide you with some options on packaging times, so you can pick the one that works best for you. It’s a two hour shift,” according to Bunz.

She says they also have some spots that require a little more physical labor. “If somebody is interested in getting a little workout, they can be a bucket brigader and help replenish the soy and rice as people are packaging,” Bunz says. “Otherwise, it’s just a two-hour shift and you’ll feed about 400 people in the time person is there packaging.”

The work takes place next Wednesday (Aug 30) through Saturday in Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Bunz says the packaging job involves pouring the ingredients through a funnel into a bag.

“You fill it with rice, soy, a scoop of vitamins and a scoop of vegetables. The bag is weighed and sealed and goes on a grid until the grid is full — and then it’s boxed,” Bunz says. She says they’ve had people as young as five working and as old as 99. Some of the meals stay in Iowa, while others travel out of the country.

“Through our Unite to Feed Program our meals are combined with some other ingredients and made available as emergency feed relief,” Bunz explains. “And then the remainder of the meals go internationally to a feeding program that provides meals to children in both schools and orphanages around the world.” Bunz says volunteers know the work they do will have an impact.

“Many of them are being loaded into semis right as they’re finished and boxed right on site down at Hy-Vee Hall. So, they’ll go out the back dock and they’ll get load onto a semi and get shipped out to the places where they are going to make a difference,” Bunz says.

Two-hour packaging shifts are available from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday of next week. And then from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Governor Reynolds on threat North Korea nukes may have on trade

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Governor Kim Reynolds and Ag Secretary Bill Northey with Chinese students.

Governor Kim Reynolds predicts there’ll be expanded ag trade to China in the years ahead, but Reynolds said this morning that Iowa exporters need to monitor how North Korea’s nuclear ambitions could impact trade with China.

“They are walking a fine line in China,” Reynolds said during an interview with Radio Iowa and The Cedar Rapids Gazette. “They’re sending troops to the border. They don’t want North Korea to have nuclear capability either, so they’re monitoring that.”

China also worries that if North Korea’s dictatorship topples, there would be a unified Korea under a democratic system of government. Reynolds returned to Iowa this past Friday after a trade mission to China that was solely focused on expanding shipments of Iowa agricultural products to China. Former Governor Terry Branstad hosted an event for the Iowa trade delegation at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Reynolds was able to meet privately with Ambassador Branstad, too.

“I have complete confidence in him,” Reynolds said. “It’s a tough assignment. He recognizes that. It started with sending arms to Taiwan and some of the legislation that’s coming out of Washington, D.C., so he is continuing to balance the needs of the United States and working with China.”

This weekend President Trump tweeted that China had done “nothing” but talk about dealing with North Korea’s nuclear threat. Trump made the U.S. trade imbalance with China a major 2016 campaign issue and the president said in his Saturday tweet that “foolish past leaders” of the U.S. have allowed the Chinese “to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade.”

Governor Reynolds said she saw signs of progress on trade during her trip, including the Chinese decision to allow four new varieties of genetically-modified corn and soybeans into China.

“But we said we need to complete the other four. It was really important that we have some consistency, predictability, timeliness in the approval process and we said both on our part as well as their part because that’s what’s going to allow us to feed a growing world population,” Reynolds said. “They’re estimating that by 2020 they’ll have another 300-400 million Chinese that will move into the middle class.”

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey was also part of the Iowa delegation that went to China this month. He said there’s “no way” to predict how the North Korean situation will “play out.”
“We’re hopeful that the North Korea tensions can get worked out and trade continues to improve with China,” Northey said during an interview after a meeting with the governor and the rest of the State Executive Council.

A group of Chinese students who’re in Iowa and plan to attend high schools and colleges here posed for pictures with Reynolds and Northey this morning in the governor’s office.