Iowa Growers and Producers Celebrated at Storm Lake Schools’ All Iowa Meal

Check out this article that the Storm Lake Times Pilot ran about the All Iowa Meal our team coordinated at Storm Lake Community School District in Storm Lake, IA, earlier this month! The meal was made entirely with products grown or produced in Iowa.

STORM LAKE — Last week, students at Storm Lake Community School District enjoyed meals made entirely with products supplied by Iowa growers and producers.

The All Iowa Meal was served at all schools for both breakfast and lunch, said Food Service Director Julia Waples. “We wanted students to see that many things they eat every day are produced in our state,” Waples said. “It was a great opportunity to showcase some of the farms and companies that grow and produce food in Iowa.”

Members of the Buena Vista County Pork Producers came to promote the meal at all schools, including Pork Queen Karina Bloom and Miss Pigtails Adysen Lussman. Students won prize drawings for baskets of Iowa-made goods, as well as a contest to guess how many popcorn kernels were in a jar.

On the menu for breakfast was scrambled eggs and toast. Bread for the toast was supplied by Bimbo Bakeries, which has plants that manufacture bread products across the state. Eggs were supplied by the Iowa Egg Council.

On the menu for lunch was BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, honey glazed carrots, locally grown apples and pumpkin bars for dessert. Bimbo once again provided the buns for the sandwiches. The pork was from Iowa Pork Producers, with barbecue sauce from Cookies BBQ of Wall Lake. The carrots were supplied by Loffredo Fresh Foods, a distributor of locally grown produce, and the honey came from the Sioux Honey Association Co-op out of Sioux City. Lundquist Farm Orchard of Cherokee supplied apples. For the pumpkin bars, the pumpkin puree Fareway sells in its stores is produced in Iowa. Flour for the bars came from Early Morning Harvest, an organic grain mill in Panora. Milk for our food service program is sourced year-round from Prairie Farms, which has dairy locations in Iowa.

The meal was cooked up and served by the Lunchtime Solutions team. Lunchtime Solutions is the K-12 food service management company that partners with Storm Lake to run its food service program. Waples said the Lunchtime team is there to make sure that children have healthy food that tastes good. “We are proud to share in the responsibility of feeding the kids of our community,” she said. “We’re so thankful for our community partners who helped make this event a success.”