Recap: All-Partner Quarterly Call - February 2026

IFSC News
Written By Mallory DeVries
Logos for the Iowa Food System Coalition and the Regional Food System Working Group of Iowa

Iowa Food System Coalition + Regional Food Systems Working Group Meeting Notes

February 12, 2026, 9:00 - 11:30am

These meeting notes were written and reviewed by Megan Kemp. If you find any errors or corrections, please email Megan at mkemp@iastate.edu. 

Participants: 30 @ 9:06, 31 @ 9:10, 34 @10:13 | Watch the Recording | View the Slides | Download these Notes

Welcome and Overview of IFSC Mission and Priority Teams 

Director Update (Tommy Hexter, director@iowafoodsystemcoalition.org)

  • RFSWG is one of the longest-running food systems networks in Iowa. Read more about its History by Rich Pirog. 

  • Partnership and priority teams are Tommy’s top Priority this Valentine’s Day! 

    • Priority team goals: team leads, please share a headshot photo and respond with your compensation 

    • Go-Far Gopher - consider the coalition as a network, like mycelium, spreading across the state. We’re not static, we’re constantly evolving! 

    • Working priority team members/outreach list 

  • Interim Director: Other updates

    • Joint press statement on immigration and food systems with 5-6 other organizations, which has yielded great media and press coverage. This shows our collective power. 

    • New partnerships, bolstering PTs, three major teams: infrastructure, labor team, environmental stewardship - casting a wider net. There are a lot of organizations that are already doing this work; we’d like them to engage in our space also. 

    • Event planning

    • Budget/Finances for 2026/2027, making sure we’re in good shape. We’ll need to continue fundraising and explore larger options. If you have ideas and want to work on this, be in touch! 

    • Staffing roles and future director hiring - Thinking through what does the organizational chart look like for IFSC, workflow, and how are we working together as a coalition to hire our next permanent director. 

  • Steering committee update (Giselle Bruskewitz)

    • We onboarded three new members last year. Officially (if we haven’t yet) welcome Sarah Green, Arnulfo Perrera, and Corbin Schulz!

    • Heartfelt thank you to Tommy for stepping up in short order and serving as interim director. We can see and feel the progress, energy, vision, and energy you’re bringing to this work. Thank you!

    • Posting the permanent Executive Director position on Monday: keep a look out. We’ll send it out through Google Group and socials. Feel free to apply and share with your networks. 

  • Communications/Iowa Food System Events and happenings (Mallory DeVries, communications@iowafoodsystemcoalition.org)

  • At the Iowa Farm Table podcast (Beth Hoffman, podcast producer, bethaudio@gmail.com) 

    • At the Iowa Farm Table Podcast: it’s our consumer-facing, general public spot for farm and food information. 

    • Healing from the Ground Up episode: quick summary of why it’s important to talk about soil all the way through what people are eating, the connections between all of that, and promotes the summit. 

    • What’s up for the Spring 2026 season? Double up food bucks, chefs and farmers connections between them and what’s happening in Iowa, land access, legislative champions, agritourism. 

  • Evaluation (Arlene Enderton)

    • Putting out scorecard soon, working on it now. Waiting for a few last numbers. This is an annual recap. This year, we’re trying to differentiate. How are we doing as a state? And as a coalition, how are we doing reaching our goals? 

    • Partner survey coming soon. 

    • Evaluation reports

Meeting Presentation: IFSC Policy Update

Luke Elzinga, DMARC Food Pantry Network and Iowa Hunger Coalition

Aaron Lehman, Iowa Farmers Union

  • Please join Iowa Food and Farm Day on the Hill on March 18, 11am-5pm

  • Advocacy trainings, register here. 

    • February 13 - Iowa Government 101: How a Bill Becomes Law - Led by Phil Jeneary (Iowa Food Bank Association) and Luke Elzinga (DMARC and IHC)

    • February 20 - Storytelling 101: Using Your Voice for Food Systems Change - Led by Adam Mason (PFI), and Beth Hoffman (Whippoorwill Creek Farm and Podcast Host)

    • February 27 - Advocacy 101: What to Expect on a Day at the Capitol - Led by Paige Chickering (Save the Children Action Network) and Cynthia Farmer (CFRA)

    • All trainings are held virtually, registration is required, and there are $25 stipends to help prevent barriers if you need. 

  • Bills we’re watching closely

    • Watching DUFB closely (SF 2027): senator dawson was the sponsor. A clean 1M appropriate for DUFB program, we’re very supportive of that. 

    • Bill introduced on Tuesday (SSB 3145) in the senate, this bill primarily deals with cigarette taxes. 

    • Haven’t seen a House bill introduced last year, but there are still a couple that are still alive from last year. 

    • Iowa Farm Act (HF 2340 / SSB 3123): multi-piece legislation that was offered by Secretary of Agriculture that includes things with renewable fuels and green indemnity funds, and some tax changes. Lots of things are coming together, some good and some bad. Highlighting some more relevant pieces here: Choose Iowa Farm to School program, there’s language in this big bill that makes that program permanent instead of temporary, creates a fund. This establishes the structure for executing the program. We also know how important it is to put something in that bucket. Recognizing the losses in this area: Losing 11M to local food purchasing agreement, and at the state level, we stopped putting state money toward buying Iowa food for Iowa schools. This bill doesn’t fund the bucket, but creates the bucket. 

      • Also relevant to farms that are doing on-farm activities: right now, Iowa gives an exemption from zoning for farms, and IFU thinks that exemption is too wide because it includes factory farms (these exemptions for zoning/liability) have not included agritourism in some cases and some on-farm processing. We want to make sure those are narrow and focus on local and regional food systems and family-sized farms. We want to make sure that doesn’t expand even more for factory farms. Make sure it's targeted for the local and regional food systems. When we think of the Iowa Farm Act, we’re trying to make some improvements on these pieces. This will ultimately probably get the support to pass. 

    • Regaining Iowa Farmer Independent Act (RIFI) - Iowa Democrats released this yesterday. Not likely to get action, but do include some provisions that align with our IFSC goals. 

    • Iowa Water Quality Act, introduced by Iowa Democrats two weeks ago. Not likely to get action, but do include some provisions that align with our IFSC goals. 

    • Anti-immigrant legislation: stuff that makes it harder for our immigrant communities and families. We’re actively watching that and getting involved as food systems organizations in that work to make sure everyone feels welcome and safe in Iowa. 

      • Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (IMMJ) Rally, next Wednesday, Feb 18 at the Capitol if you want to get more involved.  

    • IFSC Bill Tracker: IFSC Legislation Tracker

  • Iowa Farmers Union Policy Update: great Food and Farm Lobby Day on the hill. There was emphasis on water quality issues, eminent domain issues, pesticide immunity issues, and property tax issues - a lot of work to be done! 

  • Iowa Hunger Coalition Policy Update

    • HAPPY UPDATE! Summer EBT: Our governor announced that Iowa will be participating in Summer EBT! Huge heartfelt thanks to all of you for your advocacy and hard work over multiple years!! 

    • The SNAP food restrictions waiver went into effect in January. Right now in Iowa, we have the most restrictive waiver for what is allowable for SNAP food and beverage purpose in the US. We’ve tied it into our taxable food list, bans soda and candy, but also a number of prepared foods like yogurt-covered raisins (considered candy). The Governor wants to make this waiver permanent and have it permanently tied to Summer EBT and SNAP participation. That’s included in the Governor’s Bill (HSB694). Would give sole authority to HHS director to decide what is considered healthy food. If the USDA doesn’t accept that, it would basically hold SNAP and Summer EBT hostage. Big concerns about that piece. 

    • SNAP bill HSB 696, bans undocumented pregnant women, infants, and children from WIC. WIC is one of the few programs that don’t require a citizenship test. Taking food away from infants and children. WIC is 100% federally funded, so it’s turning down federal dollars. Major problems with HSB 696. 

    • IHC's blog post with some details on HSB 694 and 696

    • Go to iowahungercoalition.org and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date! 

  • Other partners involved in policy work

Brief Priority Team and Statewide Updates

This section begins at 52:30 in the recording.

Communication and Education (Jodie Huegerich and Mallory DeVries)

  • May have leadership changes to share in the future, but currently stands with Jodie and Deborah Solie.

  • 2025 recap: The C&E team has been largely involved in event planning support over the past year and is evolving! 

  • Final large group meeting on Thursday, Feb 26 at 1pm. Get together one last time and then looking at potentially taking the communication piece out of that and having a separate meeting. Email Mallory at communciations@iowafoodsystemcoalition.org to get involved.

  • Partner Portal: a place where partners can get into and access when looking for shared resources. Slowly adding things, but we need help! If you have resources to share that are widely applicable across our network, send them over to Mallory. You can access your account at iowafoodsystemcoalition.org/account/login or at the bottom of the website. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great place to find resources. If you’re a new partner, we have some graphics to share announcing your partnership with the Coalition. Trying ot make it as easy as possible to participate in the network. 

    • Some examples of resources added:

      • Grow, Eat, Play regional adoption toolkit

      • Eat Greater DSM community fridge toolkit

    • Question: how do you decide between what goes on the partner portal vs. website? Answer: Case by case basis for whether resources will be shared publicly on the website vs. in the partner portal. Portal is more food system practitioner-specific. 

Food and Farm System Infrastructure (Giselle Bruskewitz)

  • 2025 highlight: USDA resilient food system infrastructure grant, likely one-time funding, but 3M+ in smaller sub-grants distributed for equipment and infrastructure projects. 

  • Leadership, in the past, was co-chaired by Giselle and Christa Hartsook (ISU Farm, Food, and Enterprise Development). Excited to introduce Kate Gilbert: thank you, Kate, for stepping up to co-chair this PT! 

  • 2026, looking to make some pivots. Stay tuned!

    • Proposal to merge this working group with the Iowa Food Hub Managers Working Group. Need some buy-in from that group to say yes to that. Stay tuned for next quarter’s meeting for an update. 

    • RFSI Infrastructure and Equipment Grantees gathering will take place late Spring 2026: no dates yet, but stay tuned for that! Want to make sure there’s appropriate infrastructure to process and move local food across the state. Infrastructure is the backdrop for moving food across the state. 

  • Food Hub Managers Working Group

    • New website is live at https://www.iowavalleyrcd.org/foodhubs 

    • Shout-out to Teresa Weimerslage for gathering the data! She’s working hard on the 2025 impact report, and we anticipate it won’t be as exciting since the 2024 Food Hub impact report had included LFA and LFS. 

    • Question: To what extent are you also focusing on the farmer-level infrastructure and development? Answer: The vision is that this falls under the food and farm business development aspect. There are different pathways and concerns around getting infrastructure on the farm. Broader infrastructure for how do we connect our food system, scale up, and connect across the state is this PT. Land and Resource access team is also thinking about on-farm resources, like access to cooler space and pack sheds. Both those teams will be having those conversations. 

Land and Resource Access (Corbin Scholz and Zac Couture)

  • Corbin has been a farmer, but is currently farm director at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah and took on this PT leadership role a month ago. This group took a little bit of hiatus last year. Last met on Monday, Feb. 9, to reconvene and organize a plan for 2026. Representatives included Lutheran Services of Iowa (LSI), Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT), Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN), Iowa Valley RC&D (IVRCD), In Harmony Farm, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), and Feed Iowa First. Land access remains a top barrier for beginning farmers. 

  • Identified gaps include small teams and heavy workloads, lost funding; connecting farmers with land access after programs end; landowner outreach, education and commitment; land available isn’t always appropriate for farmers seeking it (utilties access, build a fence, able to get to field after severe weather); lack of formal training programs; NW Iowa lacks organizations doing this work. 

  • Next steps

    • Create working agendas for our meetings 

    • Define what “resource” means; staying in our lane and how to work best with other PTs (thinking of does resource mean a cooler or education or access to water)

    • Update website (stats, leadership, resources, partners)

    • Find other partner organizations and committees that are doing the same work to work WITH them, not repeat 

    • Create metrics that will help us measure performance 

  • Long-term goals

    • Create a regional resource list for farmers to give them a roadmap to land tenure and resources

    • Educating landowners about resources they don’t know exist

    • Connect regional land access organizations to share resources and help fill the gaps

    • Help lobby and create policy suggestions to support land access and resource building

    • Create pathways listed above while supporting farmers to build equity, resilience, and community

  • Next meeting: Monday, March 9, 2:30-4 pm. After that, we’ll have them every other month. If any other PTs would like to discuss collaboration, we’re available, and you’re welcome to join our next meeting. Email Corbin at cscholz@seedsavers.org

Farm and Food Business Development (Bob Ferguson)

  • 2025 highlight: Iowa’s Food and Farm Baseline Report with Arlene’s help. The report totaled 1,461 food and farm businesses. 

  • 2026: Create a resource list for Food and Farm Businesses to avoid duplication. Let us know if we can work together. We’ve heard from staff at LSI Global Greens and RUTE SunTracker. 

    • RUTE SunTracker - a solar panel company, allows cattle to graze underneath. Interesting concept! 

  • 2026: independently and connected, working on SE Iowa Food Web, creating a food and farmers community, for a 10-county area (Ottumwa to Burlington), looking at creating a 501(a) co-op in SE Iowa. Making real progress; Galen Saturley of Breadtopia and The Collective has installed a complete grain cleaning operation. He’s now reviving a small grain market in SE Iowa, able to clean about 300 lbs of grain per hour. He’s building an app to help drive the commerce in the co-op. Jeff Topel (a software engineer at John Deere and a regenerative farmer) has helped us build a community at https://se-iowafoodandfarmers.mn.co/. Trying to experiment with this and then make everything we’re doing accessible to everyone. People are welcome to join and check it out!

Local Food Purchasing and Procurement (Teresa Weimerslage)

  • Iowa Farm to School and Early Care Coalition is a large part of the Procurement work in Iowa.

    • The Coalition meets every other month to talk all things Farm to School related for schools and early care specifically. We now have 2 strategy teams: procurement team and education team. Bigger farm to school conversations are happening at the Coalition level. At our January meeting, the whole coalition reviewed the action plan for the greater group and the individual strategy teams. Chelsea has a draft out to the strategy team leads to review for the annual report. The Annual report covers the last school year (2024-2025). 

    • Looking for a new co-chair for the Iowa Farm to School and Early Care Coalition! Reach out if you’re interested! 

    • Next meeting is March 31. Folks are more than welcome to join! For more information, reach out to Chelsea at cekrist@iastate.edu or Teresa at wiemer@iastate.edu for more information. 

  • Procurement Working Group/Strategy team

    • Co-chairs: Kaitlyn Scheuermann, Teresa Wiemerslage

    • Procurement team meets monthly, 3rd Tuesday at 11am via Zoom

      • When the Farm to School and Early Care Coalition meets, talk about schools. 

      • Off-months for coalition, talk about other procurement. 

      • Balance discussion of farm to school and early care and their needs, as well as greater community needs (more colleges, grocery stores, procurement in other parts of the food system). We’ve operated as a default for so long that school was the dominant conversation, so working in those other areas requires intentionality. 

    • Currently, collecting 2025 sales data from food hubs for the 2025 report. 

    • Currently reviewing listings on local food directories

    • 2025 recap and highlights in 2026 February IFSC/RFSWG Meeting

Environmental Stewardship (Tommy Hexter)

  • 2025 recap: Lots of work has been getting done by IFSC Partners! Harkin Institute (one of the leaders of this team) hosted many of the Central Iowa source water resource assessment convenings last summer, related to nitrates in Iowa. Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Farmers Union, and Harkin Institute worked on the cancer sessions. Right now, this team is working to figure out how it can re-engage and bring in new partners to have more specific conversations on how the environment and food systems intersect. Harkin's Wellness Symposium in 2025 focused on the connection between agriculture and water. Over 150 attendees in person and over 1600 views on YouTube. 

  • Meeting information: email sent to partners to re-engage. 

  • WHO 13 news article on Iowa’s cancer rates and environmental factors highlights several IFSC partners and their work. 

Labor Equity (Megan Kemp)

  • IFSC Public statement on immigrant enforcement 

  • Hoping to plan an International Workers’ Day event around May 1 (rescheduled from Labor Day last year)

  • Meeting information: Help us determine the best cadence by filling out this Doodle Poll

  • Team leads: 

  • Next Wednesday, Feb 18, Iowa MMJ is hosting an Immigrants Rights Rally at the capitol 

Local Food Policy Network (Luke Elzinga)

  • Iowa Food and Farm Day on the Hill on March 18. We had a great showing last year, and we want to continue to grow this event. 

  • Advocacy training sessions on Fridays leading up to Food and Farm Day on the Hill. 

  • Outside of legislative policy

    • Trying to do more networking with local food policy councils and community-based coalitions, the Center for Rural Affairs is helping with this. 

    • Trying to have a 5-year vision for policy vision and development, this will help give us a roadmap.  

    • Save the date for next year’s Local Food Legislative Breakfast in the Capitol Rotunda. On January 26, 2027, we’ve reserved the entire rotunda. 

  • Priority team meetings are held monthly, on the 3rd Friday of each month at 10:30. 

  • If you want to get more involved, reach out to Luke at lelzinga@dmarcunited.org. 

Food, Nutrition, and Health (Laura Paulsen)

  • HEAL partnership, formerly state State Nutrition Action Council. We've decided to maintain it. Our group functions a bit differently and is quite large. Meet as a general partnership, we invite a wide range of folks to check in quarterly. Feature different partners and highlight different initiatives and programs they’re implementing related to improving nutritious food access. 

  • Six work groups - each has 5-12 members, meet on a more monthly basis. 

  • Recap of 2025: lots of changes in our team, and our work was impacted by federal funding losses. We did see some changes in our membership, but we’ve been able to maintain many of our partners and projects. Leah Pressnel is a newer staff member with the Healthy Iowans team. They help do the state health assessment and state health improvement plan. They identify key health priorities, and healthy eating and active living was one of them. We decided to align our efforts, don’t want to duplicate. 

  • Updates from work groups

    • Partnership: presenting at the public health conference of Iowa, membership assessment to identify sectors and new partners to invite

    • Data and Evaluation: identifying tools and platforms to disseminate collective impact data

    • Innovative Approaches: identify meaningful volunteer experiences, communicating with HHS to offer support for eligibility (so people aren’t losing eligibility for SNAP)

    • Education: promotion of nutrition programs and share nutrition resources more readily; support food assistance programs by increasing public and partner awareness; finalizing a shared message on nutrition security. 

  • Please reach out to HEAL@hhs.iowa.gov for more information or to attend future meetings. 

Healing from the Group Up: Iowa Summit (Jodie)

  • Jodie attended the Illinois summit hosted by Basil’s Harvest in Illinois. Getting healthcare, dieticians, farmers, and food systems advocates together in the room. 

  • A day and a half event. Day 1 is ground truthing, getting us all on the same page, ending that day talking about vision for change. Leads into Day 2 when we’re working in working groups and talking about vision for change, reflection, and how we want to move forward. 

  • Healing from the Ground Up: Register HERE and Hotel Booking Link, Booking Link, Registration is limited and filling up fast.

  • Healing from the Ground Up: Iowa Summit - https://events.blackthorn.io/en/1I1d7Ba7/g/83DSk9n0W7/healing-from-the-ground-up-iowa-summit-5a3HV42VHQ1/overview

Choose Iowa (Beth Romer)

  • Choose Iowa Grants

    • Value-added grant closed, and scoring review is underway. VERY competitive, most applications we’ve ever received, around 130 applications! Excited to see which projects get awarded and the tentative timeframe is around the end of March for announcing recipients. 

    • Dairy innovation grant: open for new applications on March 1, 2026 

      • Office hours on March 11, 11am

      • Application deadline is April 17 at noon, CST. 

  • Choose Iowa Passport - a great public resource

    • Awesome way to connect with Iowa farms, farmers markets, farm-to-table restaurants, boutique stores offering ag products from Iowa and earn points and prizes. 

    • New opt-in for 2026 underway, roll out in May

  • Save the Dates!

    • Choose Iowa Farm Store Crawl June 26-27

    • Choose Iowa Fall Crawl October 9-10

  • Choose Iowa brand program membership: go to chooseiowa.com > become a member! 

Black Hawk Soil Water and Conservation District (Paola Trujillo)

  • Work focuses on supporting urban and small-scale growers in the Middle Cedar watershed, covers 10 counties, from Franklin to Linn County. 

  • The idea behind listening sessions is that they share priorities, needs, and how we can serve in the best way. 

  • Offering childcare and language interpretation at the events if needed. Providing a meal and a $30 gift card to encourage participation. 

  • Registration at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0x3yn--Qi3uwmhcluDnVxn-G9FQdTxWnPFNkWyedeso8c-g/viewform

  • Please share this invitation with your networks and others you think would benefit from the listening sessions!

ISU Farm, Food, and Enterprise Development

  • Iowa Independent Grocer Network: hosted first webinar on self-audit tool and technical assistance application, three more webinars will be hosted this Spring. Visit the website to learn more about the initiative, access the grocery self-audit tool and request technical assistance!  

  • Iowa Farm & Food Conference, hosted and planned with CEEE, IFSC, Center for Rural Affairs, will be held in Waterloo, June 11-12. The theme is Futuring Our Food System. RFP will be coming soon! 

  • Local Food Leader ISU-hosted offerings: in-person on June 25-26 and December 10-11 and virtually September-November. Contact certifications coordinator Krista Smith at kristasm@iastate.edu with any questions. 

  • Food Innovation and Business Hub website for workshops, courses, and resources related to food businesses.

    • Lunch and Learn: What is the Food Innovation & Business Hub? Webinar, March 3

    • Plan, Prep, Profit: Starting a Food Business Workshop, Ames, March 13

    • Lunch and Learn: Difference between Cottage Food vs. Home Food Processing Establishment License Webinar, April 7

  • ISU Urban Agriculture Program website with lots of events, learning modules, and resources. 

  • Trainings for Value-Added Producer grants and new materials on AgMRC coming this Spring!

Meeting Wrap-Up

Thank you for joining the call. We have a wealth of information and partners. It can feel like a lot, but this is a great privilege we have in Iowa! 

Be sure you’re registered for all the 2026 All Partners Meetings at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/aWdLTOGSRtSUmEAWKiZDNQ#/registration! 

RFSWG has a Google Group for sharing events, job postings, and other food systems opportunities. If you’d like to be invited to join the Google Group, please email one of the RFSWG steering committee members below. 

Iowa Food System Coalition Contacts

Visit the Iowa Food System Coalition website for more information.

Tommy Hexter, Interim Executive Director, director@iowafoodsystemcoalition.org 

Mallory DeVries, Communications, communications@iowafoodsystemcoalition.org

Beth Hoffman, At the Iowa Farm Table Podcast Producer, bethaudio@gmail.com 

Regional Food Systems Working Group Contacts

Visit the Iowa Regional Food Systems Working Group website for more information.

Our steering committee is volunteer-based. For more information on RFSWG, contact our steering committee members:

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