Local businesses The Encounter Café, Get Fresh Café, and Yotopia do not have much in common on the surface. But their partnerships with Country View Dairy, a dairy farm in Hawkeye, Iowa, is the connecting tissue uniting these restaurants.

When Yotopia’s owner, Veronica Tessler, started her business back in 2011, it was always her goal to be a sustainable business and utilize local ingredients.

“I am the great-granddaughter of dairy farmers, so it’s in my blood to be doing this kind of work,” Tessler said.

She partnered with Country View Dairy in 2011 with the help of Jason Grimm, the current executive director of the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development organization. Tessler continues to use Country View’s products to this day.

“We love working with and supporting an Iowa farm, a family farm,” Tessler said. “It just felt like the right thing to do, and we’ve been really satisfied with the partnership.”

In addition to their partnership with Country View Dairy, Yotopia also partners with Molly’s Cupcakes to stock their toppings bar with cookie dough and “Molly’s Middles,” which are cupcake cutouts.

They also strive to use local fruit when it is in season, illustrating how much fresh produce they use.

“During the season, we go through so many strawberries, about 40 pounds every two days or so,” Tessler said. “Last year, we went on our summer staff outing to Wilson’s Orchard and picked berries ourselves.”

Tessler also takes pride in Yotopia’s use of sustainable products, offering reusable frozen yogurt cups for patrons who wish to cut down on single-use items. Yotopia also utilizes energy-saving, soft serve machines.

“We had a matching grant with the city about eight or ten years ago that allowed us to replace our single-pane, leaky windows with double-pane, energy-efficient windows, which cut down on our energy consumption,” Tessler added.

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Tessler noted how recently, more and more customers are curious about where their food comes from.

Events like Iowa City’s annual Farm to Street Dinner garner large amounts of local attention; tickets for this year’s in August are already sold out as people

“We’ve been around for 14 years, and the tagline ‘support local’ has been just that for a long time, but people are [still] asking the question, ‘Where does your food come from?’’’ Tessler said.

Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development organization has been around for even longer: founded in 1998. According to Executive Director Jason Grimm, the nonprofit organization works in two initiatives called farmer development and value chain development.

“Our value chain development initiative works with helping develop new markets for the farmers we work with, as well as really trying to connect the dots between the farm and the end consumer through working with food hub distribution companies and buyers across the state of Iowa,” Grimm explained.

Iowa Valley RC&D established programs such as Grow: Johnson County, a program that plants and distributes food to agencies.

“We raise probably around 20 different vegetables, fruits and crops each year,” Grimm said. “The program focuses on all that we grow with that program that are distributed freely throughout Johnson County’s food assistance agencies, from pantries, meal programs, daycares, etc.”

The organization prioritizes sustainability through its management of a program at the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm. Through them, 6 acres are farmed using sustainable production practices like composting, low pesticide use, and more.

Iowa Valley RC&D brings these sustainable practices to the Johnson County community by supporting the Johnson County Foodshed.

“We help the businesses and farms that we work with bring local foods and products into the Johnson County Foodshed to ensure that there’s a reliable, local food source available either at farmers’ markets or restaurants,” Grimm said.

Another local Iowa City business that prioritizes sustainability is Get Fresh Café. Owner Wendy Zimmermann believes in using compostable materials, housing a compost bin in her café. Their cups, lids, straws, and paper bags are all compostable.

“We bottle in glass, we’ve done that from the beginning,” Zimmermann explained. “They’re reusable, glass is highly recyclable, and there’s much less carbon footprint. No microplastics are getting into your food products.”

Before starting her business, she used to manage NewBo City Market in Coralville, running day-to-day operations that gave her insight into the need for certain beverages and products. That experience connected her with many local farmers and inspired her to start Get Fresh.

Her business partners with Country View Dairy for yogurt for their smoothies. Zimmermann also looks forward to using local fruits and vegetables when they come into season.

“We’ll sit down and talk to our farmers in January when they’re starting to plan and they’ll say, “Oh, you like this kind of kale? Ok, we’re going to plant more of this,’” Zimmermann said. “Imagine having a tomato fresh out of the garden that’s just hours old.”

In addition to using local food sources, Get Fresh participates in outreach programs, going to businesses and schools to teach them about local food sources.

“I want local food to be accessible to everyone as much as possible,” Zimmermann said.

Encounter Café also locally sources its ingredients, receiving shipments of produce every morning. Each day, all of their staff are involved in putting away product once the truck drivers drop it off.

Their eggs are from the Farmers’ Hen House in Kalona, Iowa, and follow an in-depth process before being shipped to Encounter Café.

“They come in off the farm to the farmers’ hen house, and then they clean up, grade them, and size them [and we get the largest ones],” Encounter Café manager Ray Yutzy said.

The Encounter Café gets its lettuce from Rolling Hills Hydroponic Greenhouse in West Union. Hydroponics is a plant-growing technique using nutrient-rich water instead of soil.

As for drinks, their whole milk is from the aforementioned Country View Dairy. According to Country View Operations Manager Bob Howard, about three hundred cows are milked three times per day.

“It’s important to pay attention to where your food is coming from and the practices your source is using. The total food miles involved in getting the food, too,” said Howard.

Katy Meyer, the owner of Trumpet Blossom Café, also prioritizes sustainability. All food she prepares is vegan and, in turn, better suited for the environment as it takes fewer resources to produce.

She also uses organic ingredients, which means the food is free from pesticides and chemicals that can destroy the environment. Meyer also tackles food waste by composting.

“We employ Compost Ninja out of Cedar Rapids to pick up our compost every week so that food and other materials that can’t be broken down aren’t going into the landfill,” Meyer said. “I strive to use as much of the product we receive as possible, donating extra produce to the Iowa City Free Lunch Program.”

The Trumpet Blossom Café also works with Iowa City producers such as Field to Family, Trowel and Error, Blue’s Best Friendly Farm, and more from neighboring counties.

“As part of the community, it is my responsibility to support systems that keep it strong and healthy, in a physical and metaphorical sense. That means building relationships with folks who are caretakers of the earth,” Meyer said. “This brings meaning to the work I do and keeps me connected to our environment.”

To lead a more sustainable life, Meyer suggests looking into what is already helping rather than becoming overwhelmed by what cannot be changed.

“Go to the farmers’ markets and talk to suppliers. Try to grow some tomatoes or plant a small pollinator garden,” said Meyer. “Focus on creating new traditions, pathways, and relationships with our world and community.”