More Solon Community School  meals will be featuring Iowa foods thanks to a grant from the Iowa Local Food for Schools grant (LFS). 

The school district has been awarded $2000 to procure local foods that are healthy, nutritious and unique to their geographic area. 

In addition to increasing local food consumption, funds also build and expand economic opportunity for local, socially disadvantaged producers and small businesses. Through this program, producers are able to sell to K-12 schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. School awards are facilitated by the local food hubs. 

“We are proud to support farmers,” said Becky West, Nutrition Director for the Solon Community School District. “I grew up on a farm in Northeast Iowa and I recognize the importance of supporting our farmers that work hard to provide our students with healthy meal options.  When we receive the local produce the students can taste a difference in the freshness of the products we serve from our local providers.   We also feel the importance of teaching our younger students on the process of growing produce and the benefits through our taste testing in classrooms.”

West says that through the LFS program their schools will be serving fresh local produce including tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, watermelons, kiwi berries, apples, yogurt, cottage cheese, frozen veggies and many more items.  Iowa Local Food for Schools was launched in October 2022 by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service with funding from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation. LFS is a cooperative agreement with the USDA and Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.