Nick Wallace wants to build a billion dollar hyperlocal food movement.
He plans to expand 99 Counties, a meat delivery service that delivers farm-grown meat to the doorsteps of suburban neighborhoods and urban enclaves in Iowa with the help of Amazon-style vans, into a big business. is standing
The company connects farmers and food processors across the state with customers who want fresh produce delivered directly to their homes. Twenty-six farmers and his seven processors have partnered with the company to do the “hard work” so the growers can focus on their day-to-day work.
“What if Airbnb and Uber could take off … with farmers and artisanal food manufacturers?” Wallace said.
The move to buy locally grown food has increased in recent years with the birth of companies like 99 Countys.
Companies like Omaha Steaks started out as butcher shops in Omaha over a century ago. By 1952, the company began placing advertisements in magazines to sell Nebraska beef. Now, burger flights and racks of ribs are delivered to homes in polystyrene insulated coolers with dry ice to keep them cool.
Butcherbox was launched in 2015 by founder Mike Salguero connecting with local farmers who sell grass-fed beef. According to Shopify, the company will bring in an estimated $600 million in 2022.
In the meantime, consumers can have just Cooks Venture and Pasturebird chicken, or just Snake River Farms beef delivered on a weekly subscription or on-call basis.
Wallace, the founder of food delivery in a trucker’s hat, is putting a twist on his method of delivering meat in Iowa and Chicago. , is crossing the state with a series of farm-to-table dinners featuring Iowa food vendors.
“We’re trying to appeal to people in cities who want to be a little more mindful about their food,” Wallace said in a Zoom interview at a kitchen in Keystone, west of Cedar Rapids.
“We will become a food company”
Wallace lives on a gravel road just south of Keystone. His family’s Wallace Farms is his 300-acre estate that has been passed down for six generations.
Wallace grew up in Strawberry Point, a town of about 1,100 people northwest of Dubuque in the Driftless region of the state. He left to play college baseball in western Oregon and returned home to finish his studies at the University of Iowa.
Shortly after graduating from college, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of lymphoma. He speculates that his own cancer was likely caused by toxic ingredients in the ground he ingested by licking a baseball before the pitch, as well as chemicals grown in the farming community.
more:How Winterset artist Christine Hilbert found strength in painting and prayer in her battle with cancer
He then spent several years working for an insurance company in the Chicago metropolitan area, the only market in the 99 counties outside of Iowa. He moved to Colorado, left for Des Moines, and settled in Keystone after craving space to roam and room to clear his head.
“I was going to live in a cabin on the farm,” he said. “I was so into cities and travel, I literally needed my own space at that point.”
more:The 2023 USDA outlook calls for high yields and low crop prices.more pigs, less cows
Wallace and his family started Wallace Farms nearly 20 years ago with grass-fed cattle with the goal of growing GMO-free, sustainably sourced, chemical-free meat. was launched.
In 2022, Wallace will launch 99 counties to deliver its food to homes with pouch delivery and an annual membership fee of $99, which includes free delivery service and 20% off all products.
“If people could spend $100 a month on quality protein, if we could move into other food areas, we would be a food company.” It’s too much.”
Companies such as 99 Counties and their counterparts are growing next-generation models as farmers across the state increasingly band together to sell their meat and produce as customers become more interested in where their food comes from. I am letting you.
“It’s definitely growing,” said Christa Hartsk, small farm program manager at Iowa State University.
Hartsook said growers across Iowa are increasing market share by working together to increase voice and product volume. Companies like 99 Counties and his ChopLocal, a Wayland-based online meat marketplace that brings family farms and small butcher shops to people’s doorsteps, help connect consumers directly to fresh produce.
“Within Iowa, we see this on both the produce and protein side. “They all have different business models, but they all have the same goal of spreading and increasing awareness of Iowa’s local products.”
Dinner series begins in April and heads to Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Quad Cities
On Friday, 99 County will host its first sit-down dinner at a curated event space in the East Village neighborhood near downtown Des Moines. The menu includes chicken wing toss, pork, grass-fed beef, old-fashioned fries, craft cocktails, specialty kombucha drinks, and Bread by Chelsa B’s sweet sourdough his dessert.
“It’s going to be a rotation of dishes, so everyone can mingle and go to their favorites,” he said. They can go anywhere they want and float.”
Wallace and 99 County are planning up to four other dinners in Davenport, Dubuque and the Iowa City Cedar Rapids Corridor, he said.
After dinner, 99 Counties will host an open conversation about agriculture and its industry issues, the company’s plans to solve identifiable problems, and how it builds community through membership.
“It doesn’t do me any good to be another freak corporation that tells everyone what to do,” Wallace said of the sit-down conversation.
Wallace wants to create his own company that is cruelty-free and grass-fed.
Des Moines Farm Dinner
position: Curate, 322 E. Court Ave., Des Moines
menu: Chicken wings, pork, grass-fed beef, old-fashioned fries and sweet sourdough desserts
tickets: $99 each includes membership, meat bundle and dinner ticket. 99counties.com
contact:contact@99counties.com; 319-442-3244
Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter for The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or contact him at jstahl@gannett.com.