Former Iowa Governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture said the work reflects an Iowa mindset of using resources to help others
Iowa dignitaries recently toured Goodwill of the Heartland's oil packaging plant in Coralville as part of a year long celebration of the Hawkeye State's one-of-a-kind people and places.
“Iowa has always been a place where practical ideas change the world,” Tom Vilsack, CEO, World Food Prize Foundation, said when announcing the statewide celebration. “This campaign is about recognizing the uniquely Iowa people and locations that embody the same spirit of innovation and global impact as the World Food Prize.”
The campaign coincides with the World Food Prize’s 40th anniversary. Vilsack, who has served as the organization's chief executive since March 2025, is also a former Iowa Governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
Heartland Goodwill Enterprises: Feeding the World
Heartland Goodwill Enterprises (HGE) is a nonprofit organization established by Goodwill of the Heartland in 2013 to create jobs for people with significant disabilities through the federal AbilityOne program. Through HGE, team members provide products and services to the federal government, including janitorial and landscaping services at federally-owned facilities, such as courthouses, and fortified oil to humanitarian food aid programs that ship to people in need around the globe.
Workers at the Goodwill facility in Coralville fortify local soybean oil with vitamins and nutrients before packaging it for shipping as part of federal humanitarian contracts. A map on the wall of the plant pinpoints various locations around the world that have benefitted from shipments that originated at the Coralville plant.
Global Impact, Local Opportunity
Although Goodwill of the Heartland set up a separate umbrella organization for federal contracts, all things Goodwill flow back to the organization's mission of helping people reach their full potential through education, training and the power of work. The plant itself employs people who may have difficulty finding work elsewhere. Revenue flows into established programs and services that help adults with disabilities remain active in their communities and people from all walks of life find and maintain employment. So the work at the oil packaging plant in Coralville positively impacts food scarcity on the global stage as well as workforce development in our own backyard.
"We work with people from a variety of backgrounds," Goodwill of the Heartland President and CEO Pat Airy told KGAN.
"We help people develop skills to get a better job, to get their first job, or switch industries. We help local employers source the workforce their operations rely on and need."
Iowa's Abundance Mindset
"This facility is an extension of that kind of mindset of Iowans in the Heartland of the United States, blessed to have the freedoms that we have and the tremendous resources that we have in this state and using those resources to feed the world. We want Iowans across the state to take pride in this and to understand and appreciate the fact that we do something that nobody else in the world does," Vilsack told KGAN.
About the World Food Prize
The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing prople who have significantly enhanced the quality, quantity or availability of food worldwide. Often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture," this prestigious honor was envisioned by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug and established in 1986. Today, the World Food Prize Foundation operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating agricultural innovation and inspiring global action to end hunger. Based at the Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates in Des Moines, the foundation administers a $500,000 prize each October to trailblazers — ranging from scientists to policymakers — who have made groundbreaking contributions to global food security.
Beyond honoring champions of agriculture, the foundation serves as a critical convener and educator in the fight against world hunger. Each year, the organization hosts the Borlaug Dialogue, a premier international symposium that brings together global leaders, foreign dignitaries, and scientific experts to address pressing issues in food systems and climate resilience. Additionally, the foundation aggressively invests in the next generation through youth programs like the Global Youth Institute, which empowers high school students to research and pitch sustainable food solutions.
Read KGAN-TV's full report on their website.
Photographs were taken by Goodwill of the Heartland.