UNI dining loves to celebrate and feature local foods every day, but September 27th was Iowa Local Food Day, and UNI dining was able to feature some special dishes and local ingredients. While the day is geared toward K-12 schools, it’s fun for UNI students and staff to celebrate as well, with the goal of the event to “bring together all sectors of farm to school, with goals to: 

1. provide a strong support network;
2. aid food service directors in making local procurement;
3. engage more growers in growing and selling produce to schools;
4. help growers ramp up school sales by working on a smaller scale with summer food service programs;
5. allow farm to school activities to expand beyond fruits and vegetables; and
6. raise public awareness of Iowa’s farm to school efforts.”

This year we featured two specialty types of local produce – apples from Beck’s orchard and micro greens from JR greens. 

Beck’s orchard is located in Buckingham Iowa in Black Hawk County. Pat and Louis Beck, provided us with Jonathan and Empire apples. Jonathan apples are medium sized with a red and yellow skin and are great for freezing and cooking, but are also super delicious for eating fresh! Empire apples are sweet and crisp and best enjoyed really fresh. That’s great news, because the apples were picked fresh on Monday!

JR greens is located in Waterloo Iowa. Yusuf Shehata, owner and grower, was able to provide us with broccoli and radish microgreens along with a microgreen mix. Microgreens from JR greens are nutrient-dense, pesticide- and herbicide-free, non-GMO and grown sustainably utilizing organic practices. In general, microgreens can pack up to 40 times more vitamins and minerals than full-grown vegetables, and have shown promising results in contributing to decreased inflammation. This is significant, because long-term inflammation is linked to cancer, heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, just to name a few. The greens were also SUPER fresh – they were harvested on the Tuesday before the event!

We were also lucky to have Yusuf join us at the event and share education with our students and staff. Yusuf recently graduated from Iowa State and started his microgreen growing business in Waterloo. He was able to get our customers excited about trying new foods, something we’re also passionate about here in UNI dining. 

If you’re looking for a great local meal on campus you can join us next year on Iowa Local Food Day – September 25th, 2024!

Author: Stacey Runde, MS, RDN, LDN (she/her/hers)
Administrative Dietitian with UNI Dining