The Iowa Soybean Research Center at Iowa State University hosted its sixth annual Meals from the Heartland food-packaging event on August 6, 2026. More than 70 volunteers from Iowa State University, Corteva and John Deere packaged more than 42,000 meals in two hours at ISU’s Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center. Many thanks to our volunteers and to Cargill who has sponsored the event each year with a generous monetary donation to cover the cost of the ingredients of the meals, which contain soy protein.
The ISRC hosts the event each August to celebrate Soybean Month in Iowa. Meals from the Heartland works with teams of volunteers from local organizations to package meals for delivery to food insecure people locally, across the U.S. and around the world. This year, some of the meals will stay in the Ames and Des Moines areas as well as going to international locations. The Ames locations include food pantries at ISU (SHOP) and Food at First in downtown Ames.
