from: farm-news.com
“Latino restaurants and grocery stores in this county seat community in Marshall County prefer to make their own tortillas. But when a local supplier in Tama went out of businesses two years ago, these tiendas started looking elsewhere for their white corn supplies.
Jesus Gaytan, who owns Gaytan Tortilleria,” now travels to Chicago to get his white corn and other food supplies, but said that he would prefer to buy locally, if the food was available. He needs an estimated 600 to 1,200 bushels of white corn annually.
Enter Marshalltown Community College and several other organizations determined to help Gaytan and other local businesses with fulfilling their local food needs.
“If we can do this right,” said Norm McCoy, director of the Midwest Center for Entrepreneurial Agriculture at MCC, “(locally grown white corn) would give him another marketing angle for his customers.”
Tags: corn, Iowa, latino, Local Food, Marshall County
November 1, 2009 at 3:28 pm |
Tapping into regional and ethnic food streams is a great way to promote local food production.