2026 GOLDEN ROOT AWARDS
Celebrating Iowa Farm to School and Early Care!
About the Awards
The annual Golden Root Award is a celebration of Iowa schools, early care and education providers, and residential child care institutes working to grow and share their love of local food and community. Applicants are asked to answer a series of 10 multiple choice questions followed-by one open-ended question to share the story of their farm to school or ECE initiatives.
Eligibility: To be considered for the Golden Root Award, organizations must be actively participating in a USDA Child Nutrition Program and in good standing.
2026 Timeline
Application Opens: March 9th
Application Closes: April 10th
Notice of Awards: April 24th
Read about our 2026 Golden Root Outstanding Award Winners!
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Tri-County Head Start’s Farm to ECE mission is simple, yet powerful: “Improve Nutrition One Bite at a Time.” This mission guides every decision made, and reflects the passion, dedication, and creativity their team brings to connecting children and families with healthy, local foods. Their approach is deeply rooted in the core elements of farm to ECE.
To grow hands-on garden experiences, children use garden carts, allowing for year-round growing and exploration. Each Spring, seeds are started indoors and a Planting Party takes place annually on Iowa Kids Garden Day! Families are invited to plant and take home their own vegetable bucket, extending learning beyond the classroom and into their homes. Local vendors attend this event and share resources to help families access and grow local foods.
Nutrition education is woven into the program each month through lessons on a featured local food from the Iowa Food Hub, served on “Tasty Tuesdays!” PEAS on MyPlate lesson plans feature books and a hands-on classroom recipe to reinforce learning and encourage children to explore new foods. These lessons are adapted into simple taste tests for home-based participants. Tracey Sauke shares, “One home visitor shared that a child was always excited when she arrived with the blue nutrition bag—they knew it meant they would get to explore a new food. Stories like this highlight the joy and curiosity our program fosters.” When funding for the Buy. Eat. Live Healthy series for parents ended, Tri-County pivoted to offer hands-on parent-child cooking classes, ensuring families continue to build skills and confidence in preparing healthy meals together.
Tri-County’s commitment to local procurement further strengthens their program. In addition to sourcing monthly focus foods locally, they serve yogurt from Country View Dairy year-round and provide seasonal apples from Apples on the Avenue in Nashua, Iowa. During the summer and fall months, they order and serve local foods from the Iowa Food Hub on a weekly basis.
Through intentional integration of gardening, nutrition education, family engagement, and local sourcing, the Farm to ECE program at Tri-County Head Start creates meaningful, lasting impacts. Tracey shares, “We are not just introducing children to healthy foods—we are inspiring lifelong habits and building strong connections between families, food, and community.”
Congratulations Tri-County Head Start!
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The Nutrition Department at Decorah has a valued and close working relationship with their garden-teaching staff and crew. Every Spring, garden educators Tim Hayes and Brad Johansen coordinate with the nutrition department about what works best to plant and grow in regard to cycle menus for the following school year. Led by Gina Holthaus, the school’s health class is regularly engaged in processing local food to support the school’s meal program and kitchen staff. An annual back-to-school tradition, this class cleaned over 1400 ears of corn in 2025, and set a new school record peeling 100 pounds of garlic cloves in one class period!
A garden crew also supports the kitchen’s efforts, harvesting hundreds of pounds of produce including beautiful peppers that were used in the salad bar, and on Philly cheesesteaks, Fajitas, Orange Chicken, Salads. 2026’s new favorite menu item was the Mission Burrito- served with lime and cilantro, seasoned pulled chicken, pinto beans, whipped scallion cream cheese, Spanish rice, avocado, salsa, and topped with our Mild Red Chili Sauce or the Spicy Yellow Chili Sauce. These ingredients incorporate fire-roasted garden peppers, local tomatillos, local chilis, cilantro, local garlic, and spices blended together into a fantastic flavor bomb of a sauce. Delicious!
Local hamburgers grilled by the Winneshiek County Cattlemen remain one of the district’s favorite menu items. Local beef is sourced from the Iowa Food Hub and served on a freshly baked bun made with local wheat and topped with a slice of local cheddar cheese from Homestead dairy. Nutrition Services Director Chad Elliot shared, “we have also had pea tendrils grown by our high school garden crew to serve on top of these delicious burgers!”
On Iowa Local Food Day, Decorah makes homemade breakfast pizzas with local cheddar cheese, local ground turkey, local heavy cream, local wheat, and local eggs. Breakfast pizza was accompanied by local apples and local pears! The Iowa Food Hub supplies the district with delicious local apples the entire school year.
Again, from Chad Elliott, “I am so proud and honored to work with such a great nutrition staff, teaching staff, community, and administration that supports local food.”
Congratulations Decorah School District!
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James Nisly, Owner and Operator of Camp Creek Organic Produce, has been a dedicated advocate for local foods, even before it was cool to do so. He was nominated by Kaitlyn Scheuermann with Waukee Community School District. Kaitlyn said, “I have always admired that, even with a busy producer's schedule, James has been involved in local food efforts and shows up in the room to share the producer's perspective. I think this is so important, as I recognize that the producer's voice can sometimes be lost in these conversations.” James has a willingness to innovate and fill gaps in the food system. One example is his participation in the Local Food for Schools program processing pilot. As a customer, Waukee Schools appreciated how much thought, time, and effort went into the processing pilot.
Always high quality and a time-saver for staff time and labor, Camp Creek product has been used as a Harvest of the Month feature many times over in Waukee schools. As a food hub, Camp Creek helps to get local foods across the state to more school districts. James is kind, and cares so deeply about getting delicious local foods to kids. He is more than deserving of this award. Congratulations, James and the whole team with Camp Creek Organic Produce!
All 2026 Golden Root Awardees
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Silver Award Winners
K-12 SCHOOLS
Belle Plaine Community School District
Council Bluffs Community School District
Davenport Community School District
Diagonal Community School District
Iowa City Community School District
Solon Community School District
EARLY CARE & EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Kamer’s Home Daycare
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Gold Award Winners
K-12 SCHOOLS
Clear Lake Community School District
Decorah Community School District
Eastern Allamakee Community School District
Riceville Community School District
EARLY CARE & EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Chaeli’s Child Care
Dandy-Lion Early Childhood Learning Place
Little Sprouts Early Learning Child Development Home
Tri-County Head Start
FARMERS & PRODUCERS
Apples on the Avenue
Camp Creek Organic Produce
Otter Creek Orchard
Tri-County Head Start
Dandy-Lion Early Childhood Learning Place
Iowa City Community School District
Eastern Allamakee Community Schools
Riceville Community Schools
Decorah Community School District
Riceville Community Schools
Clear Lake School District
Little Sprouts Early Learning CDH
Chaeli's Child Care
Davenport Community School District
Tri-County Head Start
Dandy-Lion Early Childhood Learning Place
Eastern Allamakee Community Schools
Decorah Community School District
Riceville Community Schools
Clear Lake School District
Little Sprouts Early Learning CDH
Chaeli's Child Care
Camp Creek Organic Produce
Davenport Community School District
Tri-County Head Start
Dandy-Lion Early Childhood Learning Place
Iowa City Community School District
Eastern Allamakee Community Schools
Riceville Community Schools
Decorah Community School District
Riceville Community Schools
Council Bluffs Community School District
Little Sprouts Early Learning CDH
Chaeli's Child Care
Davenport Community School District
New in 2026! Golden Root “Farmer of the Year Award”
This year, the award is expanding to include farmers, since farm to school wouldn’t happen without the FARM! In addition to applying for a Golden Root Award, Schools, ECEs, support organizations and community members may nominate a farmer that has shown dedication to farm to school and ECE.
Applicants are asked two open-ended questions to share the story of their nominee’s farm to school or ECE involvement. Help us celerbate the farmers who make it all happen and share your stories by April 10th!
Instructions to Apply
1. Preview the Application
Click hereto preview the K-12 School application.
Click hereto complete the K-12 application.
2. Compile Application Data
Select a lead applicant to head-up the process of applying on behalf of your site. Applicants are encouraged to communicate with additional staff to collect the most accurate, robust information and stories for submission!
3. Apply by April 10, 2026!
Reserve 10-20 minutes to complete your application.
Click “Next Page” to advance to additional questions; click “SUBMIT” on the final page.
Point-Based Scoring
Applicants who attain at least 10 points will receive a Bronze, Silver or Gold award, based on responses to the application. A certificate and virtual badge will be awarded to all. (worth 50 points total)
The 10 Application Questions
CATEGORY 1: Local Procurement
CATEGORY 2: Taste Testing
CATEGORY 3: Farm Field Trips
CATEGORY 4: Promotions
CATEGORY 5: Curricular Connections
CATEGORY 6: Edible Gardens
CATEGORY 7: Hands-On Learning
CATEGORY 8: Community Partnerships
CATEGORY 9: Staff Training
CATEGORY 10: Policy
Outstanding Awards
The Outstanding Award recognizes schools and early care and education programs operating outstanding farm to school and ECE initiatives. Outstanding Awards will be presented to one school and one ECE.
(worth 50 points total)
2026 Outstanding Award winners will receive:
Free registration for two staff to attend the 2026 Iowa Farm and Food Conference, hosted by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach FFED and the Iowa Food System Coalition; an award ceremony will take place to celebrate award winners in-person as part of the event.
A framed “Outstanding Award” certificate of recognition and a virtual “Outstanding Award” badge.
Recognition by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship at the 2026 Iowa State Fair!
Read about our 2025 Outstanding Award Winners!
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Kathy Zorbist, Food Service Director at Hampton-Dumont Community Schools, submitted a descriptive, compelling story about the farm to school initiatives at South Side Elementary, a program that provides students with access to healthy, nutritious foods while also offering educational opportunities to help them understand the origins of their food.
From Kathy, "Over the past five years, our students have utilized the school’s indoor tower and outdoor garden spaces to grow, harvest, and prepare vegetables such as lettuce, peas, beans, and kale, which are then distributed for sampling during snack time. This school year, our elementary school received a grant to support the development of a greenhouse and expansion of the outdoor garden beds. The greenhouse was completed last fall, allowing for a quick crop of radishes. Our ag program coordinator, Jodi White, has been actively engaging students this spring in seed-starting activities for the greenhouse. Additionally, a new handicap-accessible garden bed will be added to the outdoor area in the coming months."
The Child Nutrition Program at Hampton-Dumont is dedicated to supporting Farm to School initiatives through local food procurement, too! "Throughout this year, lettuce cultivated by students from the tower garden has been served at our Fruit & Veggie Bar during lunch. We source local foods directly from producers or through our food hub for meals and events, including The Great Apple Crunch and Iowa Local Food Day. During local food day, the Hancock County Cattlemen, along with our FFA students, grilled local beef patties for hamburgers served in our student lunches."
Kathy Shared about the District's Agriculture Program Coordinator, "Jodi White is committed to connecting classroom learning with local agriculture. She coordinates with nearby farmers to engage students in discussions about their work and facilitates opportunities for students to virtually experience farm activities through videos that provide a "ride along" perspective in tractors. Additionally, in partnership with the local county extension office, students engage in supplementary activities that include plant cultivation, education on food production and nutrition, as well as taste testing."
Congrats to South Side Elementary and Hampton-Dumont Community School District!
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Sarah Martinez, Nutrition Assistant and Gardener Extraordinaire, shared about the amazing Farm to ECE programming taking place through Drake University Head Start in Des Moines!
From Sarah, "This fall Drake University Head Start received the NHSA and Scott’s Miracle Grow “Gro More Good” garden grant which helped us to launch in ground, portable raised bed, and greenhouse gardens for 12 program sites in 5 counties this year, with programming extending to 4 more sites next year. These programs allowed 160 kids to explore gardening, in various ways with 7 of our garden sites also incorporating soil based or hydroponics kitchen gardens, and 6 more sites planning to incorporate a hydroponics kitchen garden next year. Our garden successes were supported this year by grant funding, direct or In-kind donation, training and development (i.e. the after-hours School Gardens 101 course), as well as active ongoing collaboration with some of our program garden sites by our collaborative partnerships built with Vegepod, Seed Savers, Starbucks “Grounds for the Garden”, Drake University’s Sprout Garden, the Master Gardeners, Iowa Farm to ECE Coalition, the Iowa Corn Trailer, LFPA, and the Iowa Food Co-Op. A grant from the Iowa Farm to ECE Coalition also allowed us to plan and facilitate garden launch “parties” for 9 of our garden sites, which fabulous engagement from our parents! Vegepod even flew in from Vegas to be present with us for one of our launches! The gardens have become a huge source of engagement and joy for all participating – staff, teaching teams, children, families, and our collaborative partners, and has helped us to incorporate child grown fresh foods into our classrooms for snacks and taste testing opportunities for all. It has been a fabulous year of “growth” for us (all) at Drake University Head Start!"
Congrats to Drake University Head Start!
All 2025 Golden Root Awardees
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Bronze Award Winners
EARLY CARE & EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Dunkan Diew
Mediapolis Childcare & Preschool
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Silver Award Winners
K-12 SCHOOLS
Independence Community School District
Kee High School, Eastern Allamakee Community Schools
Mary Welsh Elementary, Williamsburg Community Schools
Iowa City Community Schools
Dubuque Community Schools
Osage Community Schools
Diagonal Community School District
EARLY CARE & EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Gina’s Giggles and Grins
Watch Me Grow
Loving Grace Childcare
Dandy-Lion Early Childhood Learning Place
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Gold Award Winners
K-12 SCHOOLS
South Side Elementary, Hampton-Dumont CSD
Decorah High School, Decorah Community Schools
Trinity Lutheran School
Riceville Community School District
Union Community Schools
EARLY CARE & EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Drake University Head Start
Chaeli’s Child Care