Secretary Naig Awards 30 Value-Added Choose Iowa Grants, Includes Handful of North/Northeast Iowa Projects

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig recently announced that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) has awarded 30 Choose Iowa Value-Added Grants to Iowa farmers, small businesses, and organizations located across the state, including a handful of recipients in north/northeast Iowa.

Grant awardees could receive up to $25,000 in cost-share funding per project to increase the availability of Iowa grown, made, and raised food, beverages, and ag products. The announcement was made as part of Iowa Ag Week.

This year, $500,000 in value-added grants were awarded to leverage a total investment of $1.7 million across the 30 projects. 

Naig says, “Consumers increasingly want more local food and beverages and that’s great news for Iowa farmers and small businesses. These Choose Iowa Value-Added Grants help farmers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses grow their operations, expand processing capacity, and bring more customer-ready Iowa products to market.”

2026 Choose Iowa Value-Added Grant recipients include:

Iowa Food Hub | Decorah | $25,000.00

Iowa Food Hub will purchase a newer, larger replacement truck for their fleet, allowing them to expand their routes and reliably serve more customers in Iowa. Anticipated Total Project Cost: $70,000.00

Carlson Tree Farm | Hampton | $7,286.56

Carlson Tree Farm will purchase an A-frame building and create a “Little Barn Market” that will extend the quality of products, creating additional value-added product sales for their Christmas tree farm. Anticipated Total Project Cost: $14,573.13

EcoPrime | Osage | $25,000.00

EcoPrime will acquire a larger mobile freezer trailer, enabling higher-volume transportation and onsite cold storage of value-added and regeneratively raised meat sourced from more than ten Iowa partner farms. As a result, EcoPrime and its network plan to participate in additional farmers markets, pop-ups, festivals, and events statewide. Anticipated Total Project Cost: $50,000.00

Kittleson Bros. | St. Ansgar | $25,000.00

Kittleson Bros. plans to remodel their facilities this summer, which will include safer, more efficient and more modern equipment. They plan to install a new potato wash line in this revamped facility. Anticipated Total Project Cost: $353,202.08

WW Homestead Dairy | Waukon | $25,000.00

WW Homestead Dairy will purchase a refrigerated truck to allow for increased access and expansion to new markets within Iowa. Anticipated Total Project Cost: $50,000.00

This year’s cost-share funding will support a wide range of projects designed to help Iowa farmers and small businesses expand production, reach new markets, and add value to the products they grow and raise. Investments include commercial kitchen equipment, honey extraction and processing systems, cider and winery production equipment, refrigerated trucks and cold storage to improve distribution, on-farm retail spaces and farm stores, farmers market infrastructure, and specialized processing equipment for meats, dairy, produce, and other value-added products. Several projects will also create new aggregation and distribution opportunities for locally grown foods, helping connect Iowa producers with restaurants, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers across the state.

Since the Choose Iowa Value-Added Grant Program launched in 2022, the Department has awarded more than $2.14 million in state-funded cost-share to support 130 projects across Iowa. These projects have leveraged more than $7.3 million in total investment to expand local food production, processing, and distribution across the state.