Tomatoes grown in the region are featured on the shelves of local grocery stores, and more locally-grown produce may make an appearance as the growing season continues. Store officials say they like to stock local produce because it supports local people. [Click to enlarge]

Right now, Le Mars' grocery stores boast a few shelves of ripe red tomatoes grown only a couple dozen miles away.

Later in the summer, shoppers might be able to fill their carts with sweet corn, green beans and other produce that were grown locally.

Farmer's markets are no longer the only place to by fruit and veggies fresh from the garden.

Fareway, Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart in Le Mars are offering selections of locally grown produce.

"I think locally grown food is a good thing," said Adam Krepela, the store director at Hy-Vee, which has offered squash, sweetcorn, watermelon, pumpkins, tomatoes and green beans picked from Le Mars gardens and farms.

"It's something customers are looking for," Krepela said. "Any time they can support locals -- I think that's a value to them."

Fareway in Le Mars also sells a variety of local produce.

"We've had people approach us with cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peppers," said Dave Mikkelsen, Jr., assistant manager at Fareway.

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Wal-Mart's home office is pushing their stores to carry local produce, according to Mike Welch, a regional grocery manager for the chain.

"It's a philosophy of supporting local people," Welch said. "As large as Wal-Mart is, they understand areas are different. They want to carry what that community is looking for, especially if the community wants to support local people."

Alex Szczech, general manager of Le Mars' Wal-Mart said they've sold locally grown pumpkins for several years, along with other local produce.

He gives his produce manager Loren Most authority to work with local growers.

"He doesn't solicit growers, but if vendors come in to us, we work with them," Szczech said. "And we have the autonomy to work out pricing, as long as we keep it in line with what it would cost working with our big producers and having it shipped from the warehouse."

And he likes to support local growers.

"It's dealing with someone on a face-to-face level," he said.

It involves a little more than just a walk-in visit by a local vendor, though.

To be sold in Wal-Mart, growers have to be approved through the Wal-Mart home office as a vendor. Welch reviews their paperwork, checking to make sure the grower can handle the volume the store will require and that they meet other requirements, then sends it on to the home office.

The approval process can take six weeks.

Welch admitted that can seem daunting.

"But as large as Wal-Mart is, there's a lot we have to do to protect ourselves," he said. "It's different than just selling on the street at a farmer's market. But once growers are connected, it can be pretty rewarding."

After a local vendor is established with Wal-Mart, it's easier for that vendor to sell more items to the chain.

One of the requirements Wal-Mart has is that growers have liability insurance.

Basically, that insurance covers the grower in the case that someone became sick after eating the produce.

Similar stipulations are in place at other grocery stores.

"We do support local growers as long as they have proof of liability insurance," said Mikkelsen at Le Mars' Fareway. "It's not my product; the liability is on the grower."

Mikkelsen said Fareway staff has turned away potential local suppliers because they didn't have liability insurance.

"When it comes to a corporation, you have to have your i's dotted and your t's crossed," Mikkelsen said. "Food safety is a pretty big deal."

If growers can prove they have liability insurance, Mikkelsen next checks the produce for "eye appeal," examining the produce the way shoppers would, and price.

"It it's close to market price, we might go with it," he said. Fareway's corporate office in Boone keeps them up to date with where those prices are.

If the produce passes those tests, he said, it's likely to make it to Fareway's shelves.

"I'd rather keep my money in town," Mikkelsen said. "It helps the local economy."

Steve Smith of the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture, in Le Mars earlier this month, praised the benefits of locally grown food.

Smith was working with a group of Le Mars residents on a $10,000 grant to increase opportunities for exercise and locally grown healthy food in town.

The grant emphasizes this type of food, he said, based on this premise: if people have a connection to the food they eat, it will influence their behavior. In other words, the "locally grown" sign by fruits and veggies may encourage more people to buy and eat the healthy foods.

In a way, it's a throwback to families who grew much of what made it to their table.

"We don't have those personal connections anymore," he said. "Part of it is our busy lives."

Finding locally grown foods at farmers' markets and in grocery stores is a way, he said, to re-create some of that connection.

Locally grown foods also calm customers' fears about diseases -- like the recent salmonella scare -- traced to produce shipped from far-away fields, he said.

But having locally grown food also takes locals raising those food crops for sale.

"All over Iowa what we need is more growers," Smith said. "The demand is there, and I think we're going to continue to see it grow."