REGIONAL—Food insecure N’West Iowans soon will have a chance to beef up their meals.
Gov. Kim Reynolds, Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg and secretary of agriculture Mike Naig have announced a new program called “Beef Up Iowa,” which is designed to give Iowans more access to beef at food pantries due to the limitations because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The program is in a partnership with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University in Ames and Iowa beef producers. Cattle for the program will be provided by Iowa 4-H and the FFA.
Beth Doran, a beef specialist for the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach program in Orange City, said the program is going to be great for those who truly need the meat the most.
“They may not have access to it or may not have the income to buy it locally in a grocery store,” Doran said. “It’s going to go to a food bank, so it’s going to be for people who are having trouble making ends meet.”
ISU has a meat lab on its campus which will be processing the meat. Once the meat is processed, it will be procured by Iowa Food Bank Association and distributed to food pantries across Iowa, including the Sibley Mobile Pantry, Upper Des Moines Opportunity Inc Osceola County in Sibley, Upper Des Moines Opportunity O’Brien County in Primghar, the Paullina Mobile Pantry and the Hartley Mobile Pantry.
Brenda Collier, an outreach specialist for Upper Des Moines Opportunity’s O’Brien County Outreach Center in Primghar, shows donated bakery items the food pantry has received. This food pantry is among those in N’West Iowa carrying meat from the Beef Up Iowa program for customers.
Naig said there have been a lot of problems with farming in Iowa over the last couple of months due to the coronavirus.
“What we’ve seen play out in the ag world, especially in the livestock side over the last couple of months, is massive disruption in the market and processing disruption that has created a backlog of animals on farms,” Naig said. “We’ve been talking a lot about the pork industry and that’s a big number.
“Our estimates were in the middle of May, we had 600,000 pigs that had missed their ideal or normal marketing window, and so, we created the concept of ‘Pass the Pork,’ which was where pork producers could donate animals. We would raise money for the processing and then that meat would ultimately be donated to food banks and food pantries.”
The beef industry has not seen much of a difference.
“We wanted to kind of create the similar concept and also look at the beef industry that’s had a backup of nearly 100,000 animals that have missed their ideal marketing window, and processing capacity really hit a low point about the same time as pork did during the middle of May,” Naig said. “We’re slowly but surely getting better and better, but we do still have this issue, and so it’s on one part to provide for some cattle, but on the other side of things, it’s all really focused on meeting the needs of food insecure Iowans and helping out the food banks and food pantries with some good Iowa-grown beef. We know there’s going to be a significant need for that through the next few months.”
Brenda Collier, an outreach specialist for Upper Des Moines Opportunity’s O’Brien County Outreach Center in Primghar, shows shelves designated for canned food. The food pantry is expected to be one of the pantries in N’West Iowa to get meat from the Beef Up Iowa program.
The Beef Up Iowa program is expected to start on July 1 and run through October.
Doran said it is a good opportunity for local 4-H members.
“It offers the 4-H’ers the chance to basically have their animals harvested,” Doran said. “I know it’s a problem right now to a lot 4-H’ers. A lot of the county fairs are not having sales and some of those counties, while they may have a local meat locker, they may be backed up for six months or more, in terms of processing, so this does give them another opportunity, an outlet, to get that animal processed.”
She said there will be limitations to the program.
“They’re only going to take two calves per county and probably not all counties will be represented across the state of Iowa,” Doran said. “They’re going to take those requests on a first-come, first-serve basis. They’ll harvest weekly. They’re only going to do 5-10 calves per week.”
She expects the program to be a big help for communities across Iowa.
“It’s a good program,” Doran said. “You have to realize what this program is. Ultimately, those animals that are harvested are going to be ground up. That meat is going to be distributed back to local communities through the Iowa Food Bank Association. For instance, in northwest Iowa, it would be getting ground beef. The amount of ground beef they’re going to get is going to be based on how many animals from this area were processed.”
Katie Moyer, who is in charge of 4-H and youth programming for the Extension in Sioux County, said the program is just what 4-H members have been looking for.
“The Beef Up Iowa program is a great opportunity, number one, to give back. 4-H is all about serving others,” she said. “That’s a great aspect of 4-H, and the fact that they give back with their animals that they’ve worked so hard on. It sounds like an amazing opportunity because people are struggling to find a place to market their animals right now, and two, because it gives back to the community they’re from.”
The Link LonkJuly 06, 2020 at 07:00PM
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N'West Iowa pantries to beef up supply - nwestiowa.com
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