Iowa State University's Meats Lab partnered with the state's livestock farmers to provide ground beef and pork to food-insecure Iowa families.
The Meats Laboratory at Iowa State University (ISU) has always been a place where helping to feed the world through animal protein has been front and center. But in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the country, the ISU Meats Lab also played a vital role in keeping food on the tables of the most vulnerable Iowans.
Partnering with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), livestock farmers and food banks across Iowa, the Meats Laboratory became a conduit between farmers who couldn’t get their livestock processed due to packing plant shutdowns and those most...