Cedar Rapids

Comprehensive City Food System Plan and Catalyst Projects

Phase One : Cedar Rapids has progressive policies in place that facilitate local food production and food-based business development. This city will capture the creation of a comprehensive food systems plan for the city that can be used for decision-making about zoning, business development, school programs, and other related systems. In addition, we will identify and develop catalyst projects to assist in site demonstrations. This will be unique because there will be projects at the human scale that residents can learn from and use at home or in other areas around the city, and the sites will focus on the development of particular areas in conjunction with the comprehensive plan. Potential site catalyst projects will be based on proximity to existing local food system infrastructure and a needs assessment for improvements.  Catalyst projects may include: edible gardening, mobile markets, food hub distribution, training facilities and demonstration sites of agricultural urbanism practices.

Phase Two : Through extensive inventory of existing conditions and analysis by mapping, patterns have emerged. These patterns are the indicators of the current health of the agricultural community within Cedar Rapids, and the potential opportunities that exist. Mapping done in Phase Two can be found in the gallery below.

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