Iowa Agriculture Secretary Naig stops at Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank in Mason City
MASON CITY — Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig made several stops in north-central Iowa on Friday, including at the Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank in Mason City.
Naig says food banks play a key role in the community. “Certainly the last couple of years, the COVID impact, food insecurity, inflation, all those things are adding pressure to family budget, and so it is so important to both meet the need of those who need it from a food standpoint, but also we have to think about the underlying causes of those things too and why are we here and what’s happening with our economy and how do we push through those things and improve that situation.”
Naig says he’s also interested in continuing to connect the dots between Iowa producers and food security. “Talking about everything from dairy and meat and eggs to really trying to look at how can we increasingly bring produce, fresh vegetables into this equation too. How do we match that agriculture up with the food security needs. We’ve got a couple of programs that are USDA funded that are flowing through the Iowa Department of Ag and Land Stewardship that are addressing exactly that, trying to bridge that gap between Iowa farmers and food banks and food hubs.”
Naig wants to address capacity issues and hopes more of that infrastructure can be built out with the next Farm Bill. “What we’re trying to build is those connects, that infrastructure, and once you create those connections, once producers know what institutional buyers need and want and wants the institutional buyers to know what’s available, you create linkages that will last for well into the future. You’re literally creating a market, and then you can go grow that market. Yes we have to provide that basic food assistance in a Farm Bill, but we should always be looking at the infrastructure around that as well.”
Naig on Friday also stopped at Grandview Beef in Clarion, Michael Foods in Britt, and Carlson Tree Farm in Hampton.
