The Madsens are also a member of Audubon County Family Farms, a small group of farmers that sell their products directly to customers. The direct marketing income has increased 30 to 40 percent over the previous year, and that's happened for the last three years. There's getting to be more and more people who are concerned about what they're putting in their mouths. Within the institutional buying project, PFI is working with the Farm Bureau cafeteria in Des Moines, which serves 500 to 600 meals a day. Their food supplier, Sodexho, also supplies food services to 12 other corporate accounts in the Des Moines area.
Food services is a huge market.
The next phase is to take it statewide. This is one of five institutional-buying projects that we're trying to learn and help them expand. Farm Bureau is looking for more local suppliers, and PFI is helping them. PFI is working with farmers to attend the Farm Bureau facility for meetings to learn about products and amounts needed, uniformity of size, delivery and time requirements. Farmers have to work through a distributor.