For their capstone project, Public Affairs graduate students from the School of Planning and Public Affairs will evaluate local food efforts and opportunities in the Clinton area, particularly as they relate to food insecurity and health and wellness.  Local food strategies often include "farm to table" programming, expanding markets for producers, community gardens, and more.  

As part of their capstone project, second-year graduate students from the Master of Public Affairs program developed a list of organizational and policy recommendations to strengthen the Maquoketa Farmers Market and to increase regional collaboration and access to local foods.  

In a report to the City of Mason City and North Iowa Farmers’ Market Board of Directors, a student in the Geographical & Sustainability Studies: Senior Project Seminar class completed an independent project that evaluated two Mason City farmers market site locations based on mobility and accessibility indicators. 

In a report to the City of Mason City and North Iowa Farmers’ Market Board of Directors, students in the Entrepreneurial Management Institute: Business Consulting class provided recommendations for a permanent location for a community farmers market based on preferred characteristics and potential sites.

Students from the Geographical and Sustainability Sciences department used GIS to map the sources of the farmers’ market products and locations of their vendors, giving consumers, and market managers - it is a visual understanding of the area over which the local products are sourced. In addition, students researched how the locations of these vendors and the market correspond to food recovery institutions to assist the Farmers’ Market in forming future collaborations.

Graduate students in the College of Public Health developed health intervention projects that focused on reductions in childhood obesity through behavior change counseling. Students worked with organizations in Muscatine such as the YMCA, Sunset Park After School Program, and local preschools.

Dubuque city leaders wanted to increase the production and consumption of local foods as part of their Sustainability Dubuque initiative. In addition to common direct-to-consumer approaches, such as community supported agriculture programs and community gardens, Dubuque city leaders wanted to expand to a higher impact approach by expanding the market for local food producers to sell their products to large institutions.

Students in the Earth and Environmental Sciences program evaluated soils at the Chadek property, which was a vacant city lot located in the Morningside neighborhood of Iowa City, south of City High and a few blocks west of 1st Ave.