Anne Langebartels

Recently we’ve heard you ask: “How is Table to Table faring under the changes happening at the federal and state level?” and “What can we do to help?”

Proposed cuts to federal poverty relief programs like SNAP and Medicaid will impact our neighbors’ ability to meet their basic needs.

USDA foods accounted for 17% of all the food distributed by pantries in Johnson County last year. Cuts to funding for a quarter of this food have been announced. The remaining is funded in the farm bill, but we’ve seen other congressionally funded programs axed.

~ Follow and subscribe to the Iowa Hunger Coalition to better understand the direct impacts on our neighbors. Use your voice to promote the importance of programs like USDA TEFAP, now, before we see those proposed cuts come to fruition.

T2T recently lost funding for all of our seasonal AmeriCorps roles. These members lead our seasonal local foods programs including managing over 30 farm partnerships and recovering 10% of the fresh produce we deliver.

~ Volunteer with us. We need you now more than ever. email volunteer@table2table.org to find out the many ways we can use your help.

Our partners are facing significant funding cuts for key life saving services that can’t be replaced by community funding alone. The most recent budget proposal guts HUD’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development funding. These programs directly fund shelter/housing services and also support local funding to 20+ community agencies including Table to Table.

~ Consider increasing your gift or signing up for a monthly recurring gift. You are our lifeline —60% of our funding comes directly from individuals and local business contributions. 

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When good food ends up in the landfill, not only does the food go to waste, but every resource that went into producing, processing, transporting, and storing it is wasted as well. Each step in the food production process, including disposal when it goes unbought from stores, produces harmful emissions. Food waste ultimately accounts for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions each year. Food rescue aims to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by using food for its intended purpose – to be eaten. So far in FY25, T2T has rescued 2.2 million lbs. of food – that’s equivalent to nearly 2 millions meals provided.

*Figures calculated with the ReFed Insight Engine Impact Calculator

Table to Table’s Food Transportation Rescue program aims to capture good food that may go to waste as a result of being rejected by local food vendors. This can happen for any number of reasons and often has nothing to do with its quality – damaged packaging, mislabeled items, or simply too much of a product are all common reasons that vendors reject shipments even though it’s still perfectly good food. The past two years, T2T staff and volunteers have worked hard to develop this program, maintaining 17 partnerships with food transportation companies and warehouses, and successfully recovering nearly 140,000 lbs. of good food through rejected truckloads. To promote the program, AmeriCorps and volunteers designed and posted flyers in food warehouse porta potties, which has been our most successful outreach effort to date – call that creative marketing!!

Food Rescue Tales

In November we received 35,000 lbs. of distilled water that had been rejected due to 1 damaged jug. Not only can distilled water be drank, but it can be used for medical and cleaning purposes as well – a super unique offering that our partners were thrilled to receive!

This March, we happily accepted a 2,030 lb. donation of milk that was rejected due to a few leaky cartons. Luckily, T2T Dispatcher Ryan Mohwinkle recruited their visiting siblings to help us clean off each carton and distribute them to our partners!

How our food rescue model sets the tone for an exceptional food access network, one of the best in the state.

Every day at Table to Table, we adapt to the unpredictability of food rescue. We’ve built a system that’s flexible enough to meet the unique needs of our neighbors. At the heart of that system is something surprisingly simple: the humble banana box—absolutely central to our mission. If you haven’t seen it in action, let me paint you a picture.

Most of the food recovery work in the US is done in two models: a model relying on huge trucks and paid staff to pick up pre-packed pallets and deliver them to a warehouse for distribution days later or a model where pantries send their own staff or volunteers to the store to collect whatever food is available that day. Table to Table is one of the few organizations across the country that uses a route based model, and the banana box is a key part of that process. Volunteers go into a food donor partner and collect the donations directly from staff. They cart it out, pack it by type into 20 or more banana boxes, and deliver it directly to food access partners.

With this model we prioritize dignity, supporting our belief that both people and food have inherent value. At a partner meeting just this week, folks reported that most of the food we deliver in a day is gone within 3 hours, so we know our neighbors get food to their tables as fresh as possible. When we pack food by hand, inspecting items for quality, we’re not just moving food—we’re ensuring it’s good food, worthy of the people we serve.

And our model supports equity, too. Food recovery is unpredictable. Some days a store might only have a few boxes of bread. Other days, there might be hundreds of pounds of strawberries. In a one-store-to-one-pantry model, that can be a challenge. What if a pantry doesn’t have enough patrons for all those strawberries? What if the store has nothing that day? Our volunteers visit multiple stores, and split the food into smaller manageable boxes by food type. This allows us to redistribute resources more fairly and address needs of different communities. We can make sure those strawberries are delivered to both a Head Start program and a pantry. We can also pick up and combine several small donations to create a meaningful delivery. The banana box allows us to respond in real time, to build equity into the system with every stop.

Our volunteers aren’t just box packers. They’re relationship builders. They know the names of dairy managers and produce clerks. They touch each item that goes into a box. They check in when donations are low and thank donors in person. That daily presence makes a difference—this is why stores in Johnson County donate more food collectively than those in comparable communities.

When a volunteer delivers boxes to a partner, they’re not just unloading and leaving. They’re asking, “What do you need today?” They’re listening and noticing change. Then they’re reporting back, so we can adjust. This kind of real-time collaboration simply isn’t possible in a top-down distribution system. But when you’re handing a box of food directly to a recipient partner? You build trust. You stay connected.

Last year, volunteers distributed 2.7 million pounds of food. They packed more than 1,000 boxes a week, 52,000 boxes in a year. Volunteers are the reason we can respond quickly and distribute quality food equitably. You can join us. Whether by volunteering, donating, advocating, or simply sharing our story, you are a part of this network.

None of this would be possible without our community. We’re holding steady, because we’ve built a model rooted in adaptability and powered by people. But we also know that the road ahead won’t be easy. State and federal policies are shifting. Food insecurity is becoming more complex. And yet—we’re still here.

So, when folks ask me how we are going to meet this moment? My answer is: We will do it together and we will do it one box at a time.

In hope & solidarity, Nicki Ross -Executive Director

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Marquis Heard joined the Table to Table team for a 2023 Summer term as our Produce Stand Coordinator and loved it so much that he chose to stay on for a full 11 month Green Iowa service term, completing a total of 14 months of service with us. He used expertly crafted media relations to significantly raise the profile of T2T’s environmental work and dedicated much of his time to developing and refining our Overages, Shortages, and Damages (OSD) program that focuses on rescuing food from rejected truckloads in the area.

Marquis took the time to reflect on his experiences at Table to Table upon completing his final service term.

I began my first AmeriCorps service term with Table to Table in June 2023. During my three month summer term, I was T2T’s Free Produce Stand Coordinator and was responsible for scheduling and leading over 30 free produce stands hosted in Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty. To me, the most memorable aspect of T2T’s free produce stands was the level of community engagement that existed at them. At each stand, it was great to see people connect around produce and share recipes and dishes with each other. It was also nice to see folks stop by the stand and not only take produce for their family, but for neighbors, friends, and others. I feel as if there’s real connection in sharing food with those around you, and that connection goes much deeper than just nutrition. Before I knew it, an entire summer had passed and I had assisted in distributing over 23,000 lbs of produce through the free produce stands. My term was wrapping up around September, and the last thing I wanted to do was move on from Table to Table right as I truly understood a lot of the intricacies that went into T2T and its mission. Fortunately for me, an 11 month Green Iowa AmeriCorps position was available and offered to me which I gladly accepted.

As a Green Iowa AmeriCorps member, my role switched from coordinating free produce stands to wrapping up the gleaning season, and also assisting with developing Table to Table’s OS&D program. Gleaning is the act of harvesting produce that is excess, and may go to waste in the fields otherwise. Table to Table has a strong connection with over 20 local farms and gardens, and these growers contact T2T when there’s produce for the Gleaning Coordinator to arrange to harvest. It was great to see the other side of T2T’s local produce recovery program, to go from distributing the produce at the stands to harvesting and collecting it felt like a well rounded experience for me. I was also able to gain knowledge on how some of the fruits and vegetables I eat everyday are grown, which is something I didn’t take the time to consider prior to my service term. Additionally, I enjoyed forming relationships with all of the local growers, and to see their excitement and passion for growing food, and the amazing volunteers I met on gleans. Table to Table’s local produce recovery is so special because it provides a home for excess produce that growers put so much time and effort into, and that home is directly in the communities it’s grown in. 

As mentioned earlier, I also assisted in developing T2T’s growing OS&D program. Similar to local produce recovery, the Overages, Shortages, and Damages (OS&D) program finds a home for food that gets rejected within the trucking/transportation industry. These rejections can happen for many reasons, the truck brought too much of a product, the wrong product, or a pallet in the shipment was partially damaged so the whole load was rejected. Assisting in developing this program was a really unique experience since I was given the opportunity to start at almost square one, and was able to see the thoughts and considerations that go into creating a new food rescue program. I really appreciated the time and consideration that the OS&D team, and the T2T staff as a whole, put into explaining to me the broader aspects of how decisions within a program are made. Through OS&D initiatives, I assisted T2T in accepting 40,000 lbs of potatoes from a farm in Canada, 30,000 lbs of Rice-A-Roni from a local trucking company, and 16 other rejected loads from semi truck drivers. Overall, the program collected over 82,000 lbs of food that would have ended up in a landfill otherwise. 

I’m now wrapping up my 14th month serving at Table to Table, and would sign up for another term in a heartbeat if I were able to. In my time at Table to Table, I feel as if I’ve gained countless lifelong experiences, both professionally and personally. T2T truly invests in their AmeriCorps members. Food rescue is ever changing, unpredictable, and sometimes hectic, yet staff still take the time to give even the three month members the best experience possible. It was more than a pleasure to be a part of the T2T team.

We are so thankful for the immeasurable impact Marquis had at T2T during his time with us!