Project Freeze helps food business entrepreneurs find new markets

Buying fresh produce and other homemade food items at local farmers’ markets is growing in popularity for many Iowans -- and benefiting many small producers.

However, small fruit and vegetable producers face high equipment and labor costs and time-consuming licensing requirements -- all factors that can limit the number of new markets they can target and enter. To help entrepreneurial growers get over these obstacles, Iowa State University Extension is leading the way on Project Freeze. This effort involves the planned development of a self-sustaining commercial kitchen facility where food business entrepreneurs can maximize the full potential of their products and gain access to new markets through modern processing techniques, cutting down on product waste and developing new products.

ISU students Maria McKean (right) and Stanley Prawiradjaja (second from right) helped Project Freeze volunteers freeze 160 pounds of strawberries in Cedar Falls. The Brown Bottle purchased 100 pounds of the berries. Project Freeze made the connection between a local farmer, a locally grown and processed product and a local restaurant.

“Project Freeze is an outgrowth of an effort Extension has been working on for over three years,” said Jill Weber, an ISU Extension nutrition and health field specialist in Waterloo. “We first became involved when the Black Hawk County Farmers’ Market wanted help in developing a year-round farmers’ market. This eventually led to us securing a grant through the USDA to do a feasibility study and business plan for a kitchen incubator.”

Weber explained that a kitchen incubator operates as a shared-use facility that food business entrepreneurs can rent. They have access to technical assistance and can use the latest equipment to process and package their food for sale to restaurants, grocers and/or consumers.

According to Weber, more than 40 kitchen incubators are located throughout the country, but nothing like this is up-and-running in Iowa yet. A kitchen incubator “benefits small growers by providing a way to launch a new product line and extend the marketing season for their crop. By moving up the food chain to a processed market, greater profits are possible,” Weber said.

Ruth Beck, a long-time user of ISU Extension services, is a member of the Project Freeze leadership team and also is a small produce grower and the owner of a home-based, custom-baking operation in rural Buckingham. She has been involved with Project Freeze from the start. “This is the most exciting effort I’ve been a part of because it’s really addressing a need,” Beck said.

Beck is confident Project Freeze can continue moving forward and eventually get a permanent, fully equipped commercial kitchen opened in the near future. “To see the work progressing is just fascinating,” she commented. “We’ve got a wonderful start and hope to get some more momentum going, because something like this could provide jobs and create additional revenue streams for small producers.”

Project Freeze leadership team members include Main Street Waterloo, University of Northern Iowa Local Food Project and Regional Business Center, Northeast Iowa Food Bank and farmers Ruth Beck and Gary Tedore. St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Cedar Falls donated use of a kitchen and Crystal Distribution donated freezing services.

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