 Hi, I'm Andrea Evilsizer, and I am the new executive director for Healthy Harvest of North Iowa, basically just started in November. And so I'm taking over from Marie Boyd, who was with us for about four and a half years, and previously many of you know Jen Libby, who is the founding director of Healthy Harvest. And so Healthy Harvest is a non-profit that connects and educates in support of the local food system. So we do all sorts of work in a nine-county area up in North Central Iowa. So we kind of span from around Osage, which is Minstrel County, over to Kasuth County in Algona, and then down to Franklin and Wright and Floyd down to Charles City. So we have a pretty big region, and we try and do tons of different programming. We do things obviously related to the shared use kitchen that I'm going to talk to you about, but we do quite a bit of farm to school work, quite a bit of farmers market technical support. We host a North Iowa local foods coalition, just kind of a wide variety of different things and with the intention of connecting producers with market opportunities and resources, and then connecting consumers with opportunities to buy local and how to find local and just get them connected. So I handed out our local food guide, which is kind of our consumer resource of where to find local in North Iowa, covers a lot of producers, but it also lists out businesses that source local restaurants, breweries, things like that, especially food stores and things like that that we partner with. And we have a pretty extensive website, if you want to check that out at northiowafresh.or... Oops, sorry, in my other brain, Healthy Harvest of North Iowa, Healthy HarvestNI.com. So previously I was the director, or the manager of North Iowa Fresh, which was a small food hub in North Central Iowa, and my brain still kind of goes back and forth into that, evidently. So yeah, like Penny said, I've been doing local food work in many different capacities for the last about 10 years. I've been on the board of the farmers market for Clear Lake. I manage the food hub and then a variety of other small things, including tomato greenhouse and selling blackberries and bedding plants and all kinds of things. So yes, so, but related to the SARE, or to the specialty crop project and the SARE grants that we have, I'm going to be telling you about Arshadou's kitchen project and how that has evolved over time. This project started well before I was involved, and so it has a bit of a history of its own, and then, which I'll try and explain to you, and then kind of where we're going to take it after multiple pivots and direction changes. As many grants, you might know, many grants go through this type of evolution. You have an idea, you write a grant, or two or three, you get one or two of those out of the ones that you hope to get, and then you have to pivot. So this is the story of the shared use kitchen in North Central Iowa. So it all began a couple of years ago when there was three people from the North Central Iowa area, including our previous executive director who went to the John Papa John Center for Small Business Development, and they took the entrepreneur class, the business venture school class, in order to build a business plan in order to build out of shared use kitchen in North Central Iowa. So that's how it started. They went through that whole course, and they did that, and they did their business plan, they had a good handle on what they were looking for, and from that, oops, it didn't go forward. Oh, that was going back, sorry. They were, oh yes, they were able to identify that there did appear to be demand for shared use kitchen and space up in North Central Iowa. There were some organizations that were looking for places to host classes, such as cooking classes, different educational classes, nutrition, things like that. There were other businesses that were looking for opportunities to do things like with culinary, such knife skills and things like that, and then there were entrepreneurs that were looking for additional space in order to scale up the operations that they were already doing. So they did identify that there was a need, they were identifying that there was need for kitchen space with commercial kitchen equipment, counter space and storage, so space bigger than what you might have in your home or some place to use that's more of a commercial space, and then a lot of interest in education, marketing, learning about licensing, web design, photography, marketing, all those types of things that go along with that. So there was a need, and the original concept came to be known as the kitchen, and it was to help producers and local food entrepreneurs to navigate all of these things like related to the licensure and those types of things and scale to a point where they were more profitable. So this was the original kitchen concept. We did have a space identified at the Simply Nourish store in Mason City, and that you can see I guess on the left side is the Simply Nourish space that was available, and the concept was to transform that into a shared-use kitchen space. And so three grants were written. One was a specialty shop block grant, which we were awarded, a Wellmark Foundation grant, which was a very large grant that was going to cover the design, the major kitchen equipment, the layout, all of the major construction of the actual kitchen, and then a SAIR partnership grant. Unfortunately, the Wellmark grant did not get funded. So we did get funded for the specialty block grant and the SAIR grant, which are the two that we're working with right now, but unfortunately because the Wellmark grant did not get funding, we were kind of in a pinch with a majority of the project. So of course, then you go, you pivot. What is plan B? So obviously, we started to look into our partners and how we might proceed, and we went back to Simply Nourish and we said, okay, we didn't get the Wellmark grant. What should we do next? Do we embark on a different type of fundraising effort? Do we want to, where do we want to go? And actually at that point, writing a grant, receiving the grant, it's a year or roughly after the original conversations with Simply Nourish and they had decided that when they first started working with us, they were also thinking that they would use that kitchen space, the new build out to host classes and do their own types of processing like small batch processing for the store. They had found that the space that they already had within their existing store was adequate for their needs and they no longer needed thought that it was something that they wanted. They also had received, from my understanding, multiple, two or three different requests from other businesses that were interested in renting out that space for quite a bit more than what we had budgeted in the grant. So basically that partnership was no longer. They decided to go a different direction and so, again, here we are pivoting. So there was not enough money to actually design. We no longer had a building, but we did have two grants and we did have producers and entrepreneurs that had interest and other businesses that were interested in using this kitchen space. And so we wanted to find a way that we could still achieve the goals of the grants like finding a space for those people to, a kitchen space for those folks to use and for production and education purposes and to satisfy the needs of the grant goals. So we decided we better go back a little bit to the drawing board and do a resurvey of our producers and of the entrepreneurs that said they were interested and kind of re-ground truth like where people were really coming from, like were they, if we found a space in Mason City, which was the original plan, were they really going to travel to Mason City to use this kitchen? Were they going to use it more than once or twice a year? Was this something that we were going to be able to fill the space if we did find another kitchen location? And we got a lot of feedback, kind of varying feedback. A lot of feedback about that they didn't really want to travel to Mason City if they were in Kassuth County or Mitchell County or someplace, you know, that was, you know, multiple counties away, they would have to haul all their stuff there, it would be kind of an endeavor and they would prefer to have something closer to home. Well, you know, that makes a lot of sense. Also there was a lot of, when we surveyed them about what they were going to use the kitchen for, almost every producer said they were interested in hosting classes or educational opportunities to teach people about how, you know, more about their own products that they're producing and, you know, how to use them or recipes or, you know, even things from like how to render lard, you know, it's a pretty simple process, but people don't know how to do it. But, you know, you could show that or teach that in a kitchen in a, you know, a short classroom session. So things like that. So how to make soup stock, how to do those types of things. And then that would be like a customer that would maybe come back and purchase those items, the lard or the bones or whatnot, and then do those types of processes at home. So proximity to the kitchen was very important, a lot of interest in hosting classes. Some of the producers that had maybe originally said that they did want to do some shared or some value added processing. Many of them, when they really thought about it, they said, we want that done. We would like these products to be made into these other products, but we really don't have time with all the stuff we're doing already, producing and marketing and whatever. They were like, we're really, we'd prefer to find an entrepreneur or a partner or somebody like that that could help us do that or that could do it for us and we could, you know, hire them to do that task. So it started to become like, I don't know, at least in our region, it seemed like having one centralized kitchen wasn't really the answer. There was some needs for some equipment. People did identify some equipment items that they would like to have to, you know, to do some value added processing, maybe to either salad farmer's market or to freeze or something like that on a small scale. But there wasn't, you know, like a huge consensus on, you know, the kitchen space itself being centrally located. And so we, at the same time, we also started to develop a list of other kitchens that already exist in these communities. So it kind of became a thought that maybe there were kitchens already in these communities that we could help market those kitchens and or help people help those kitchens to have the right paperwork that was necessary in order to rent out a kitchen. And instead of us building out a kitchen, we could instead like kind of provide technical support to the existing kitchens to help them to utilize their space more efficiently or, you know, when they aren't using it, maybe have a have a producer or an entrepreneur rent or use their space. Do you have a question? Yeah, it's a kind of a we have a list. So I'll explain to you where we're at in the process in coming up, but we have a list of kitchens. Some of them are existing businesses that have like a bakery or cafe that have a kitchen, but maybe they're only open three days a week and they have the rest of the days are without, you know, they might be doing some of their own baking or whatnot, but they aren't using it every single day 24 seven. Some of them even like for kitchen cooking classes and stuff. Some of them are like for each learning center that has a commercial like a commercial kitchen that you could do a cooking class there. But you know, it maybe doesn't have all the equipment to do like a full, I know, I mean, like to do a value added processing item or something like that. So it really varies. And we've had a few people reach out to us like Purple Ribbon Beef just wrote for a Choose Iowa grant and they're putting in a commercial kitchen on their farm when they build out their new, if they, I guess if they get the grant and they build out the new farm store and they're going to put a commercial kitchen in there and they want to be able to be on our shared use kitchen directory in order to, you know, let people know about that and have other people use it. So yeah, so this is our re-image. So this was the kitchen re-imagined. We kind of looked at what we have. So we have the two grants we have for equipment, planning, training, marketing, technical support. We have some interested people, farmers, entrepreneurs. We have experience. That's kind of what we do is make the connections. It's like Helly Harvest is kind of like a matchmaker. That's what we do is connect people with what they need. So we have that experience. We know a lot of producers. We know a lot of communities. So but what we need is kitchen space. We need a website or some way to communicate what we're doing. We need some place to store the equipment. If we have some equipment items that producers could rent or borrow, it needs to be somewhere they can access and get to it. And we also need some education to the farmers and the entrepreneurs that this stuff all exists and how to get access to it. So the new plan is, and this is kind of pretty preliminary, like this is like sort of within the last couple months, we've kind of revamped and reorganized. So we're looking at doing what we're calling now the shared use kitchen network. So we have secured a storage room at the 4-H Learning Center in Mason City where we can store all the equipment that we purchase and we've installed like a keypad entry door so that we could, if a producer was coming to rent it, they could key in the code, check out the equipment, take it back to the kitchen in their community. We have a list of kitchens. We haven't started reaching out to the kitchens yet to ask how interested they are and if they want to be part of this. But we have some that have reached out to us that are interested in connecting and we also have others on our list of people that we think might be. And then we have been working with the Iowa Valley RC&D. They have, a number of years ago, they did a website with a different grant and they've had kitchens listed on the Iowa Kitchen Connect. And so we've been working with them to update their website and add North Iowa as a location on Iowa Kitchen Connect. Oh, okay, here I'll maybe, yeah, let me go there. I was going to pull it up for you guys to look at. Anyway, so, oh, it's not, I guess it doesn't want to, maybe we'll go there at the end, Iowa Kitchen Connect. Hold on one second. It comes up on the computer here, but it's not going over there. So let me, yeah, yes, that's weird. Anyways, Iowa Kitchen Connect, it was a website that already existed, it was already listing commercial kitchens. So we've been working with, we have a Mallory DeVries who works with us. She's pretty savvy with the website design and stuff. So she's been helping to update this site so that now it has a space on it for North Iowa. It has more information about our space, about our plans. It has kind of, we've kind of made the website a little more generic so it's open, it's more clear that it's open to people, not just entrepreneurs. It's open to producers that might be looking for a space or, you know, a community member that wants to use a space to teach a class or something like that. It's kind of going to be open to all of those folks and for workshops and things like that as well. So we'll try and get to the website after we get through the slides. So our next step is to finish updating this site so that we can start onboarding kitchens. I feel like we're pretty much at that point. The Forest Learning Center where our equipment storage location is also has, they do have a commercial kitchen there. So I think we're going to start there by asking a few producers in our area to host a couple classes there and ourselves also going ahead and hosting a cooking class there so we can see if we have the right equipment for hosting classes, see what people need, see what other things, you know, we can purchase with the grant so that people have kind of some kits that they could take to other kitchens to host classes. We're going to be based on the survey, we're going to prioritize which items to purchase for equipment. A big part of it will be these cooking class kits so that they could take, you know, a series of items with them to a kitchen to host a cooking class. We're working on an inventory system on how to keep track of all of the items. And then, oh, like I already said, we're going to test it, test how it all works, how the system works, uploading kitchens into the Iowa Kitchen Connect. There's like an online form that they can put all their information in and then it should list their kitchen, but we're going to do a little few tests on that and make sure that's all working. There's some document generators on the site too that you can generate some documents if you're a kitchen that wants to rent your kitchen to a producer. It'll kind of create a document, a rental agreement type of a document that you can then edit and customize to your own kitchen. And then once we have, you know, once, if it seems like everything's going well with the Forest Living Center site, we're going to, we'll reach out to a few of these ones that we know have already kind of said they are interested in this and have them pilot the process and then do some promotion to kind of whichever kitchens want to be added, kind of go from there. The big ultimate goal is to have, maybe I have the center site coming up, I'll have to, we'll see, but the ultimate goal is to have at least one kitchen per county so that those producers could have a close by kitchen and that the kitchen has the required documents and enough knowledge to be able to rent the kitchen and have all the right paperwork for whatever is being done in that kitchen. So we're going to be marketing so that we can get that out so that people know, so producers know that they can rent the kitchens and the equipment. This is a list of some of the partners and the resources that we have, some of the kitchens that are already listed on Iowa Kitchen Connect. So coming soon to a North Iowa area near you, we have the shared use kitchen network which will hopefully by the end, hopefully by the end of this year we'll have multiple kitchens on board it and start being able to do some real production there and classes. So if I try to go to show you the kitchen connect website, there you go. So yeah, most of this website existed already. We didn't really want to have to build out a whole new website because that's a lot and we already have a website so rather than that we wanted to partner with an existing project and like I said, this was a project that was, I don't really know, like probably five to eight years ago they had a grant to create the site and there wasn't that many. If you go to the kitchen directory section here, maybe, there weren't that many kitchens listed. There were some in Des Moines, there were a couple in the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids area and Council Bluffs I think, maybe one in Dubuque. So it wasn't being overly utilized and we thought well it makes sense for us to partner with them, increase the promotion traffic for their site as well, update a lot of documents. But the site had just not been maintained over the last few years so we went through, combed through and fixed all the links and got that all up and running and added a site for North Iowa kitchens to be added. We've had one person reach out through the email already although when I returned their email, I haven't heard back what they were really looking for. They didn't say where they were so I'm trying to figure out if they were legitimate or what but I don't know why, now nothing's happening but maybe I'll try and go back. Yes, I can maybe scroll up. So we changed a few things. This original website was very focused on entrepreneurs finding kitchens to rent so we kind of changed the language a little bit to make it businesses so it includes entrepreneurs and farm, enterprises, the kitchens on there and then I don't know why I can't go to the directory page but oh there it is. So sorry, sometimes I get really close to the mic. So yeah, when you scroll down, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Iowa City and North Iowa is now listed as a site where people can rent and hopefully eventually we would hope to have at least nine listed in the North Iowa section.