Top Ten Organic and Local Barriers for Lower Income Consumers

"Local Foods Connection is a non-profit organization that purchases produce, meat and other products from small family farmers and donates this food to low-income families. As part of our main program, we enroll families in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups, through which they receive a box of fresh, organic produce every week for approximately 20 weeks. Running concurrently with the CSA program, we offer our clients opportunities to learn about nutrition and healthy meal preparation. They earn points for each educational activity completed and can use these points to purchase kitchen equipment. We have begun our tenth year of work in the Iowa City, Iowa region. We also serve Fairfield, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The “Top 10 Barriers” list was compiled by Local Foods Connection staff and volunteers, as well as social service agency personnel who serve the same populations we do. LFC serves single mothers, people with exceptional medical needs, immigrants, refugees and racial minorities in cities ranging in size from 9,000 to 200,000 people. We realize that people living in bigger cities or smaller towns, in Iowa or elsewhere in the country, might experience additional obstacles unique to their environment and consequently might not be well-represented on this list. Furthermore, we understand that some of the challenges on this list are confronted not only by low-income families, but by people of all income levels wishing to purchase more local foods and to add fresh food to their diet."

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