Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig (right) congratulates Home Kneads’ head of operations and business development Mike Harris. (Photo: Mary Boldinova) By Mary Boldinova Iowa Agriculture Week closed out Monday just the way you’d expect: with farmers enjoying fresh homemade bread in Slater. N ina Harris threw open the doors of her half-renovated Main Street storefront — the future home of Home Kneads bakery — to welcome Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, reporters, local officials and a handful of farmers for the announcement of 30 Choose Iowa Value-Added Grant recipients. Awards totaling $500,000 were distributed after a competitive review of 130 applications. The cost-share grants are expected to leverage $1.71 million in total investment across the state. The new Home Kneads space is mid-renovation, a one-man crew racing toward a July 4 grand opening — the permits, Harris laughs, had just been signed that morning. Amid the studs and insulation, a white-clothed table displayed wooden cutting boards of their sliced “Classic” and “Honey Oat” sourdoughs, with ramekins of honey, jam and butter ready for slathering. Home Kneads is currently selling in 12 Fareway stores across Central Iowa, and Harris said the goal is to double that number before the end of May. The Choose Iowa grant is helping equip the new space with three ovens, new mixers, and a walk-in cooler. “We’re almost at capacity right now, producing around 600 loaves a week,” she said. “With all this equipment, we’ll be making that a day.” Home Kneads is one of Choose Iowa’s 340 members statewide — a program just over 2½ years old that already spans 90 of Iowa’s 99 counties. “Iowans tell us consistently that they want more local products,” Naig said at Monday’s event, “and today’s announcement will help make that happen.” The grants reach into Central Iowa, too. In Ames, Mustard Seed Community Farm received $17,600 to build out an on-farm licensed commercial kitchen to process and sell more of what they grow on site. In Des Moines, Pie Bird Pies recieved $11,514 to add a dough sheeter and convection oven, with plans to source more Iowa fruit and expand into wholesale. The appetite for local products is there, Naig said. More than 80% of Iowans surveyed said they’d go out of their way to buy local, and pay extra for it. Since the value-added grant program launched in 2022, the state has invested $2.14 million across 130 projects, generating $7.3 million in total investment. Jody Barrett of Rooster Ranch in Knoxville sees the grants as something larger than individual projects. “It’s about creating opportunities and building something sustainable right here in Iowa,” she said. “Something that we can hand down to our grandchildren.” ...read more read less