Des Moines Area Community College is ending a food forest and urban prairie program at its downtown campus, citing funding issues and aesthetic concerns.
Administrators also say the program does not tie in with the college’s academic goals, but supporters say the outdoor space provided educational opportunities, free nutritious food for food-insecure students and community members, as well as therapeutic benefits.
The Sustainable Urban program, which launched in 2017, included an outdoor food forest and community garden, as well as 30 native prairie gardens across the campus. The food forest and gardens have since provided free produce — available 24/7 — to students and community members.
“We've made it very clear that it was ‘take what you need, leave what you can.’ So we always had folks out there enjoying the space,” said April Clark, former sustainability coordinator of the program.
Before 2017, the food forest was supported by students in environmental science classes, with small grants used to purchase plants. Sustainable Urban hosted educational workshops on gardening, foraging and the culinary uses of plants and volunteer days with community organizations. DMACC instructors also used the space and the on-site outdoor classroom for biology and environmental science classes.
Clark said the space was a blend of a community garden and food forest. Among other things, the garden grew strawberries, apple trees, tomatoes and culturally-relevant foods like bitter melon.
Unlike other farming techniques, Clark said food forests are intended to be self-sustaining and require little maintenance once established.
“Essentially, the concept is that it would eventually take care of its space itself, like mimicking a natural system, where, if you walked away from a forest, it could be able to take care of itself to a degree,” said Clark.
Sustainable Urban made up a core part of DMACC Urban’s food pantry program. A community fridge and storage space for the pantry were acquired through a grant Sustainable Urban received in July. This year, the program harvested 1,600 pounds of fruits and vegetables and added 2,500 pounds of rescued meals to the campus pantry.
Administration withdraws support
In an email to DMACC staff and faculty sent Nov.27, Vice President of Operations Bill LaTour cited ending the program due to a “lack of funding” and the area having “no clear academic use.”
DMACC offered April Clark another position, which involved caring for the food forest under the groundskeeping and custodial departments. However, Clark said the new role included additional indoor and outdoor custodial duties during the winter months, which led her to decline the position. Consequently, the college did not rehire for the role.
In the same email, LaTour said DMACC approved the program with the understanding there was no guarantee that the college would step in and support this program’s continuation when the grant concluded and said "that grant has now been discontinued.”
Clark said the program was not dependent on a single grant and grant money was used for one-time expenses like commissioning the design of the food forest and purchasing plants.
The most recent grant, for fiscal year 2025, was awarded by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for $2,060 for the community fridge and food pantry.
DMACC President Rob Denson told IPR the decision to end the program also came about because the food forest and prairies were not “aesthetically consistent” with DMACC’s efforts to beautify the campus.
Denson said DMACC invested $25 million into new construction on the Urban campus alone, which includes new buildings and green spaces.
“We've spent a lot of money trying to improve the looks of that campus and the garden just was not — we could not make it look good,” Denson said, adding that the sustainability coordinator position cost the college around $15,000.
Denson told IPR that DMACC is not doing any “across the board cuts,” but does not want to add anything that will put “pressure” on student tuition. He added he was “not aware of any academic program related to the garden.”
“It was a good effort,” Denson said. “Obviously, we need to be raising more food for individuals than less. But we just feel that we can do it more efficiently through working with the food banks, etc., to provide food relief for our students.”

Meeting a community need
Former DMACC Urban provost Anne Howsare Bowen told the Des Moines Register in 2017 that over half of respondents in a survey sent to DMACC students identified as food insecure.
Denson noted DMACC Urban students diverge from the traditional college student background — their average age is around 27 years old, 63% are first generation students and 54% come from historically marginalized backgrounds. In total last year, 1,677 students attended the downtown campus.
According to Feeding America’s Minding the Meal Gap map, approximately 10% of Polk County is categorized as food insecure, which is defined as “the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.” The Iowa Hunger Coalition also reports 10% of Polk County is enrolled in SNAP benefits, while nearly 8% of the population is eligible for the program but not enrolled.
The decision to end DMACC’s program also comes as the city of Des Moines has become more open towards urban agriculture. Nearly a month before DMACC announced to staff it was ending the program, the Des Moines City Council approved code changes easing restrictions for people to operate urban farms and gardens on unused land around the city.
Future plans
DMACC’s communications department told IPR in an email that the college plans to repurpose the food forest area with landscaping that aligns with “a front entrance campus location.” However, no specific designs have been developed yet, and no timeline has been established for its removal.
The college plans to donate plants and materials from the ended program to Sweet Tooth Farms, LSI Global Greens, Forest Avenue Outreach and other programs.
Denson said, despite cutting the program, the college is still planning on boosting its food pantry program.
“We hope, over time, to increase the food pantry operation, which is much easier to do than gardening, and then we can be much more focused on providing direct help to our students,” he said.