March 29, 2024

Central Iowa frozen produce company looking for Jasper County partners

Iowa Choice Harvest is a company created by Iowans, for Iowans and focused on using only produce grown in Iowa.

The company’s goal is to make Iowa sweet corn and Iowa grown apples widely available year round in a convenient, quick-frozen format.

“We are 100 percent from Iowa. We had the intention starting out to be a local food company,” said Penny Brown Huber, ICH CEO.

ICH, which has been in operation for a little more than a year, took seven years to plan, and now, Huber said ICH is looking to grow its product line and partnerships.

Huber said it is hoping to expand their frozen offerings to include asparagus, carrots and rhubarb.

In order to do so, it is looking for growers that are using more than one acre of land to produce those products, and although they have no partners in Jasper County yet, Huber said they would more than welcome adding a partner from the county.

“I’d love to hear from them,” Huber said of local growers.

ICH — which is headquartered in Ames, but has a processing facility in Marshalltown — only uses Iowa growers for its supplies.

Huber said that any farmer interested in partnering with the company should email her at, pbrownhuber@iowachoiceharvest.com

By partnering with ICH, farmers get a consistent buyer, help market themselves and they help ensure their food is going from Iowa soil to Iowa dinner tables, according to the company.

The initial success from the apples and Iowa sweet corn, has been key to ICH’s decision to diversify its product line.

Because people really love asparagus and carrots, and with more schools seeking to implement fresh fruit and vegetables into meal plans, thanks to federal guidelines, those products have become more in demand, Huber said.

To keep its products as natural as possible, ICH doesn’t add any additional sodium or sugar to its products, Huber said.

Huber said they have no plans of expanding nationally anytime soon, but the main goal is to become widely available in every market in Iowa. Currently, ICH can be found in all Fareways in the state, select Dahl’s, Hy-Vee and  Hometown Foods stores, as well as some independent retailers.

In Newton, ICH frozen apples and Iowa sweet corn can be found at Fareway and Hy-Vee in the frozen foods section.

Contact Senior Staff Writer Ty Rushing at (641) 792-3121 ext. 6532 or at trushing@newtondailynews.com.