-Photo courtesy of Harvest Photography
The Harvest Gathering farm-to-table dinner is held annually in front of the historical Bricker-Price Block building in Earlham. Approximately 150 people turned out for the most recent event in October.

EARLHAM — In October 2019, 80 people gathered together on a main street in a rural Iowa town, seated at long tables to dine together on locally grown, chef-designed meals as part of the Harvest Gathering farm-to-table dinner.

The fundraising event has grown from its inaugural 80 people to 150ish diners today. Organizers still set up under farm-style lights in the middle of Chestnut Avenue in front of the historical Bricker-Price Block building in Earlham for the annual event that helps support community programming for seniors and youth.

Allissa Johnson, executive director of Bricker-Price Block, said the community was asked what they’d like to see done with the historic building. They responded that they’d like to see a place to eat and something to do, Johnson said.

“So we currently have a cafe in the bottom and a bodega and plant shop on the other side,” Johnson said. “The rest of the building is a community event venue that offers programs and activities all year long.”

Two major programs offered are a Kids Club camp for children in preschool through eighth grade, and a senior speaker series. There are upwards of 30 camps each year, including day camp, summer and winter camp, and local teachers and Iowa State Extension leaders help host them,” Johnson said. “We also have grants for low-income families, so they can attend camp for free.”

“In 2025, we tripled the amount of scholarships we were able to offer,” she continued. “Nearly 50 percent of our kids are on scholarship. We also provide lunch and snacks all day for the kids.”

The free senior speaker series is offered on 28 Fridays out of the year and focuses on historical or cultural education opportunities for senior citizens that run an hour to 1.5 hours. Sometimes the programming includes field trips.

“We discovered that there was nothing for our seniors to do in town besides congregate meals — no programming or education. So we usually see 35 to 40 senior citizens that come Fridays at 10 a.m. We present on subjects like finances after you pass, Iowa Civil War monuments, the Freedom Rock, local history, state history and foreign history,” Johnson said. “We had a foreign exchange student come and talk about their country. We believe seniors shouldn’t stop learning.”

Other popular events offered to the community include a mommy-son date night, daddy-daughter dance and a bacon bash. But the best attended is the harvest-to-table dinner.

“We just finished year seven. All the food is sourced locally from growers in Dallas and Madison counties,” Johnson said. “We have partners we work with regularly to provide the food, then we find an executive chef with farm-to-table experience. We rent the tables and chairs, and a local gal helps me dress up the street. We love the backdrop of our building and other buildings, which elevates the aesthetics of the scene.”

While the event is open to anyone, there’s a group of regulars from the community who religiously attend the fundraiser. They sit alongside people from Des Moines and beyond who want to experience the Harvest Gathering farm-to-table dinner.

“There’s not a lot of farm-to-table events like this. When we first started in 2019, there weren’t a lot of farm-to-table dinners in general, but it’s become a thing with other entities,” Johnson said.

“Our board of the nonprofit was questioning if we’d make any money off of this, which we thankfully do, but the other goal is that we’re surrounded by agriculture and it only makes sense that we honor those agricultural roots.”

Even though the recent event reached 157 people, Johnson said 150 diners is their “sweet spot” — with one chef in the lead and the amount of tables needed. Guests pay per plate, and this year organizers added a live auction that was fun for attendees, she said.

“We raised an extra $5,000 with the live auction. But ours has an ag focus to it. We had a ground beef and steak package from a local farmer and a bloody mary brunch basket from a local pork producer, for example,” Johnson said. “It helps get the word out about their locally grown farm products, and we can direct people to their website to buy more of their products and learn about their farm operations.”

Although many partners would love to donate their ag products to the Harvest Gathering farm-to-table dinner, Johnson said the nonprofit insists on paying them for any farm goods used to create the dinner. But they do secure sponsors to help cover some of the costs, which allows the nonprofit to retain a good portion of the funds raised at the event.

The menu varies year to year based on the chef’s preference and the ag products available, but examples include stew with chicken and rabbit, and grazing boards.

“We’ll start with appetizers that are passed around, or grazing boards, then soup and salad, followed by two entrees. We’ll do pork and beef, then a dessert course,” Johnson said. “We have drink pairings for every single course. We’ll team up with a local distillery or brewery.”

Local FFA and 4-H members serve the meals, and an estimated 50 volunteers help pull off the big event.

But Johnson starts working in January to prepare for the big event in the fall. As the executive director of the nonprofit with no other employees, along with eight board members, Johnson said the outpouring of support for the event is overwhelming and impressive.

“A lot of people participate because they love this town and the community and they want to see us continue doing the good things that we do for the community,” Johnson said.

In fact, the downhome yet glamorous Harvest Gathering farm-to-table dinner stretching across one Iowa town’s street has garnered so much attention in Iowa and beyond that other communities have reached out to Johnson for help starting their own event.

“We’ve done it for so long that people look to us for guidance. That’s one thing I never saw coming out of this was for us to be some sort of leader in the farm-to-table initiative in Iowa,” Johnson said. “We do it the best we can and for what works for our community and our nonprofit. It allows us to support local farmers, highlight an executive chef, utilize locally grown produce, shine a lot on the partners like a locker, celebrate agriculture in Iowa and support the programming we offer in the community.”