Anne Langebartels

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Why local food matters

Anne Langebartels/Love Food, News /Love Food /

March 28, 2023

Did that apple you’re eating come from five miles down the road, or is it more well-traveled than you are? Reduce your carbon footprint and benefit your health by choosing local food.

Monthly Topic Overview

Why does choosing local food matter?

“Choosing local whenever in season and when possible, as often as possible, strengthens a community-based food system,” says Michelle Kenyon, director of Field to Family, an Iowa City-based nonprofit that works to create a healthy and sustainable local food system. “Community food systems enhance the health of our economy, environment, and our population.”

Let’s go in-depth with benefits:

Choosing local food reduces transportation-associated greenhouse gas emissions.
- Significant greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food logistics. Most conventional food travels over 1,000 miles to get to us, the consumers. (To put that into perspective, that’s like driving to Boston from Iowa City.) Almost one-fifth of carbon emissions in the food system are from burning fossil fuels to transport (and refrigerate) food via trucks, trains, boats, etc. With a greater distance to travel, there’s also a higher chance of food spoiling or being damaged on its journey, leading to more food waste.
Choosing local food offers fresher, more nutritious options that benefit your health.
- Food sourced locally spends much less time in transit from the farm to your plate, which means it loses fewer nutrients before you eat it. Plus, it’s fresher and tastes better. Eating local encourages you to eat with the seasons, learning when certain types of produce are at their peak for quality and taste.
- Plus, many local farmers take environmental health into consideration when growing food, using sustainable practices to increase biodiversity and protect pollinators.
- “‘Know your farmer, know your food’ is absolutely true, as local farmers are transparent when it comes to their growing philosophies,” Kenyon says. “Those who implement growing practices that are committed to improving soil, water, and air health are upfront about it.”
Choosing local food strengthens our food system.
- When you purchase local food, you’re supporting local farming, processing, and distribution jobs, keeping your dollars in our local economy. The more of our local dollars that go into local food, the more local food is grown in our region. Those dollars invest in the future of our food supply.
- In addition to food, agritourism supports our community’s economy. Participating in local activities like farm to table dinners, goat yoga, and apple picking ultimately support folks living and working in our communities.

How can I access local food in Johnson County?

Now that you understand the difference that eating local can make, let’s delve into how you can access local foods in Johnson County. Our community is host to a lot of quality local food options, including these listed:

Farmers Markets offer seasonal local foods and goods sold by our neighbors. Markets typically run May-October. Check out this list of Johnson County Farmers Markets.
If you’re looking to order local foods online, Field to Family offers an online farmers market beginning Earth Week, April 17.
Many local farms offer community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares for purchase. Vegetable shares are seasonal and subscription-based. Find a local CSA with this guide to Iowa CSA farms.
Want to grow your own produce? You can’t get more local than that!
- Try your hand at gardening in your backyard; or, if your space is limited, container gardens kept on patios, steps, or in windows are excellent for growing your own tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, lettuces, strawberries, and herbs.
- Iowa City community garden plots are another great option for planting your own garden or gardening with friends.
- Plus: share your bounty and grow an extra row to donate to Table to Table! Drop your donations off at the Table to Table office in Pepperwood Plaza, 1049 US-6 E, Iowa City on weekdays or Saturday mornings.
Shop local at the grocery store. Wherever you shop, check labels when you’re shopping to see where the food you’re planning to purchase came from.
Free produce stands are hosted throughout the growing season at locations in Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty, stocked with fresh, local produce, free to all. Keep an eye on social media for Table to Table, CommUnity, Coralville Community Pantry, and North Liberty Community Pantry later this spring for details.

Activity

Learn about how you can access local food in our area with Field to Family’s resources.
Next time you go to the grocery store, pick out three produce items and check the labels. Where are the items from? Are they local or from a faraway place?

Resources

Learn more about Field to Family’s “Farm to School” Month, educating the next generation about local agriculture (video).
Watch “Dirty Food Chain: Why You Should Know Where Your Food Comes From” (video)
Healthline lists seven great reasons to eat local foods.
Check out Field to Family’s Local Food Explorer.
Field to Family explains: “Where does your food come from?”
Ecowatch lists 10 reasons to eat local.
Emory University analyzes energy that goes into food production and distribution (2010).
Nature discusses CO2 emissions from transporting food.
Reference this Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Harvest Calendar to learn when your favorite produce is at its peak.

Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.

Deep dive into composting

Anne Langebartels/Love Food, News /Love Food /

February 23, 2023

Banana peels, watermelon rinds, corncobs, eggshells, coffee grounds – the list goes on of food scraps that we don’t traditionally eat. Once we’ve eaten the banana, scrambled the eggs, and drank the coffee, what can we do with these non-edible scraps? Compost them!

Monthly Topic Overview

The Love Food, Fight Waste program has focused mainly on food waste reduction over the last several months because preventing food waste from forming in the first place is the top priority for reducing our environmental footprints. This priority is concerned with edible foods – the banana, not the peel; the egg, not the shell. For these non-edible food parts, composting is a great alternative to throwing these items out.

Below are several common questions related to composting answered.

What is composting?

Composting is the process of turning organic material (food scraps, garden/yard waste) into a nutrient-rich material that can be added to lawns and gardens to improve the health of the soil and the plants that grow in it.

Decomposition, the breakdown of materials, happens naturally in the environment. For example, leaves fall off trees during autumn and slowly decompose into detritus (organic matter) with the help of bacteria and bugs.

Composting is “facilitated decomposition.” The organic material in a compost pile is still naturally breaking down with the help of bacteria and bugs. In addition to this natural breakdown, Compost Operators facilitate this process by turning the pile to let oxygen in. Oxygen is needed for the materials to decompose.

What is organic material?

Organic material includes the following:

Food (including fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, dairy)
Garden/yard waste (including branches, grass, leaves, flowers, plants)
Paper (including shredded paper, greasy/cheesy pizza boxes, paper napkins, paper towels)
- Clean paper, such as a pizza box with no food on it, is also fine to recycle.
- Shredded paper, due to its small size, is difficult to successfully sort at our recycling sorting facility in the mix of other materials which is why we do not accept shredded paper in curbside recycling. Shredded paper can be composted, or it can be recycled via the paper bin at a local recycling drop-off location.

What can be composted at our local Compost Facility?

All of the materials listed above in the last question: food, garden/yard waste, and paper products!

Who can compost at our local Compost Facility?

The Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center, where the Compost Facility is located, serves all of Johnson County (residents at no cost, and businesses for a fee).

Where is our local Compost Facility?

The Compost Facility is located at the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center on the west side of town, 3900 Hebl Ave. SW, Iowa City. The facility is open Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

How does our local Compost Facility make compost?

From start to finish, the composting process takes about one year at our facility. Here’s how it works:

As clean loads of organic material come into the compost facility at the landfill, it is piled in a designated area. Our Compost Operators use equipment to lift material from the pile and load it into the grinder equipment. The grinder shreds the organic material into evenly sized pieces. This shredded material is then formed into long rows that are approximately 12 feet high.

The organic material in a compost pile is naturally breaking down over time with the help of bacteria and bugs. In addition to this natural breakdown, Compost Operators facilitate this process by turning the material with equipment once per month. As the bugs and bacteria are working away breaking material down, they produce heat, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. Turning and mixing the material is an important step because it allows oxygen in and releases heat which maintains a healthy temperature and oxygen level.

During the processing time, each compost row is required to maintain a temperature of at least 132 degrees F for a consistent two-week period. This requirement ensures that heat kills harmful bacteria and pathogens.

After several months of decomposition, monthly turning, and consistent monitoring, the material processes into the nutrient-rich soil amendment that we call compost. Before it is available to the public for sale, the compost is fed through the screener equipment to pull out any large organic pieces that did not properly break down or contamination pieces. It sits for one month to return to ambient temperature, and then it is available for sale to residents and businesses in Johnson County.

How can I compost at home?

Curbside composting
- Curbside composting is available to Iowa City residents living in single-family homes up to 4-unit apartment buildings ($3.50/month on utility bill).
- If you are a curbside customer, check out the Curbside Composting Guide.
Backyard composting
- Learn how to compost in your backyard with the Composting At Home Guide.
Take materials to the Compost Facility
- If you would like to reduce trips and wait until you have a larger quantity of food waste, place in the freezer until you are ready to compost to avoid odor and rot issues.

Don’t forget about source reduction!

Composting is a food waste disposal method that is environmentally-better than landfilling, but it is still waste. It is important to eat edible food as the first priority to prevent wasting good food and to reserve composting for the non-edible food parts.

Activity

If you compost:

Look in your compost bin to see the different items that have been thrown in. Are the food items non-edible, like coffee grounds, or are they food items that could have been eaten and instead were wasted, like moldy bread?

If you don’t compost:

Look in your trash can to see what has been thrown away. Do you see any non-edible food waste that could be composted? Check out the tips above to learn how you can get started with composting.

Resources

Residential Curbside Composting Information:
- Iowa City Curbside Composting Guide
- Coralville Information
- North Liberty Information
Home Composting Guide
Learn more about the Iowa City Landfill services and the Compost Facility with this short video.

NPR’s 5-step guide to composting
Beginner’s guide to composting: How do I compost? Where does it end up? How does it help fight climate change?

Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.

A year of “moving the needle” and a vision for the future

Anne Langebartels/News /

February 6, 2023

Allison Gnade’s first year as T2T’s food rescue Program & Services Manager

Allison Gnade has experienced many sectors of our community’s complex food system. She’s worked in grocery stores, on farms, and in a restaurant, dabbled in catering, and was once a long-time vendor at the Iowa City Farmers’ Market. (You may remember her sweet and savory tarts!) She’s a gifted writer and worked for eight years as editor of New Pioneer Food Co-op’s magazine and food blog, allowing her to visit farms and interview food producers throughout Iowa and see firsthand how, as she put it, “Growing food for humans in Iowa is such a challenging vocation, in spite of our fertile natural resources.”

Allison Gnade stands in a farm field, holding a cardboard box full of freshly-harvested fennel — Allison harvests fennel at local farm Trowel & Error

These experiences and more led her to her current role as T2T’s Program & Services Manager – as she describes it, in her enthusiasm about the role: “an actual job saving food from going to waste, reducing the entire food system’s environmental footprint, by getting it to people who need it at no cost, thereby moving the needle just a little, even if just a little, towards less inequality? Sign me up.”

Her role at Table to Table is multifaceted. She maintains and improves our food rescue operations and builds relationships with partners to learn how we can best meet the needs of our neighbors. All of this ultimately strengthens the hunger relief network in Johnson County, which is no small feat, but she’s up to the challenge: “I don’t think I could find an organization more aligned with my personal motivations and values!”

Now, one year into the role, she’s helping T2T make concrete steps toward these goals. She has improved our AmeriCorps member onboarding and training process and led four AmeriCorps members in their work on access and equity, gleaning, free produce stands, and local food recovery last year. She led staff and AmeriCorps members through developing an Access and Equity training curriculum that partners will be able to use to train their own staff and volunteers on a variety of topics. She’s revised T2T standard operating procedures and helped recruit, hire, and onboard a team of seven staff & AmeriCorps in the past year.

Four people, most wearing bright yellow vests, stand in an office space — Allison, along with Chaim, T2T’s Logistics and Relationships Coordinator, meets with Vance and Terri at Lineage Logistics, T2T cold food storage partner

Allison has also led an analysis of food donor contributions and relationship opportunities, with a vision for growth of these critical relationships. Now, she and the team are envisioning a donor and partner appreciation program that we’re excited to continue to implement in the coming years, and working to increase culturally appropriate and high-nutrition foods that are highly sought-after by partners. She’s also joined community conversations, including representing T2T on the Local Homeless Coordinating Board and exchanging ideas and support with the national Food Rescue Alliance, helping our operations align with our community’s needs and learning how changes in policy affect our constituents and our work.

When we asked her what drew her to T2T’s mission, she surprised us by sharing that this mission alignment began wayyyy back… all the way back to elementary school. She remembers, with a laugh: “When I was in second or third grade, I wrote a book called The Map to Food Land. It was about a group of starving animals that decided to work together to find a mythical map. This project involved the cooperation of a variety of mostly-unrelated animals clapping their paws together five times, doing a handstand under particular circumstances ‘in the city,’ which magically deposited said map in a garbage can, and led them to a grocery store to live in. [The End.] Some interests don’t change over time.”

Allison and her daughter sit at the radio station studio, with microphones and headsets — Allison, joined by her daughter, speaks on-air about T2T during the KCJJ Radiothon

As we ask all new T2T staff members, we needed to know Allison’s favorite food memory, and she couldn’t stop at just one. As a child, she fondly remembers: “Sitting on the porch swing eating peaches off our tree after riding the school bus home, peach juice dripping from my elbows.” In her college days, she remembers avoiding her homework by: “Finally mastering how to make caramel sauce, after the umpteenth try. Pro tip: don’t stir it!” More recently, favorite food memories include her young daughter: “Remembering and requesting – by very specific recipe – the birthday treats (which were more like projects) I made her in preceding years,” including a spiraled cake with luxuriant black currant icing, and lemon cupcakes studded with raspberries, topped with fluffy lemon curd frosting. Yum!

Allison conveys her passion for reducing food waste into her role at T2T with thoughtfulness and contagious enthusiasm. We’re very glad to have Allison, with her dedication and passion for food, food systems, and equity, on our team.

Rethink & revive your food

Anne Langebartels/Love Food, News /Love Food /

January 16, 2023

Those Brussels sprouts look wilty. That bread is crusty and stale. They can’t be good to eat, right? Think before you toss. There may be a way to revive that day-old veggie or bread into a tasty dish.

Monthly Topic Overview

Bread, fruit, and vegetables are just a few food categories at risk of getting wasted when items appear stale, bruised, or wilted. Embracing food imperfections with a little culinary creativity can significantly reduce food waste (and save you money!).

A note on food safety:

Many foods in these conditions (stale, wilted, etc.) are safe to eat. Following our tips on food expiration dates can help with understanding what is safe or not. Beyond these guidelines, use your senses – some foods are noticeably beyond saving if the look, smell, or taste is concerning.

Tips by food type:

Bread: Make croutons, breadcrumbs, French toast, bread pudding, stuffing, and more with stale bread. Here are a few sources for recipes:
- Insanely Good Recipes
- The Kitchen Community
Milk: Did you know that milk is safe to consume for a week past its expiration date (as long as it has been properly refrigerated)? Do a smell test.
- Slightly sour milk can be used as a substitute for buttermilk in cooking such items as pancakes or biscuits.
- Whole milk can be used to make ricotta cheese. Learn how with Emily from Table to Table.
- Not sure how to tell if milk is just a little sour or if it is spoiled? Check out this resource to learn more.
Lettuce: Unwilt your lettuce by soaking in an ice bath. Learn how from Cook’s Illustrated.
Bananas: Mushy and browned bananas? No problem! These are actually the best bananas for banana bread, smoothies, and more.
- Banana bread recipe from Allrecipes
- 36 other over-ripe banana recipes from Taste of Home.
- Have more bananas than you can eat right now? Freeze them.
Apples: Bruised or wrinkled apples? These can be perfect for baking applesauce, pies, and other desserts. For a variety of recipes that use old or bruised apples, check out Kitchn.
Tomatoes: There are a ton of recipe solutions for overripe or bruised tomatoes from lasagna, to marinara sauce, to soups. View recipes from EatingWell.

More tips:

Mushy berries and other bruised, overripe fruits can be used to make smoothies. Blend fruit with water, juice, or milk. Add some honey or cinnamon for extra flavor and added nutrition!
Got other wilted veggies besides lettuce? Soak wilted vegetables (carrots, celery and more) in an ice bath for about 10 minutes to bring them back to life. Wilted produce is usually a result of loss of water and they just need to be rehydrated. Learn more.
Stale crackers or chips can be re-toasted in the oven to crisp them up. Learn more.
Soup or sauce too salty? Add some vinegar, lemon juice, water, or brown sugar. Learn more.

Activity

Got some stale bread at home? Follow along with Emily in the kitchen and whip up some seasoned croutons or breadcrumbs!

Resources

Tips to revive food from a variety of sources:
NPR interview with Dana Gunders (formerly with the Natural Resource Defense Council and now Director of ReFED) on tips to cut kitchen waste
How to revive food (Rachael Ray Show video)
How to make croutons or breadcrumbs from stale bread (Table to Table video)

Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.

Eat It, Feed It, Compost It

Anne Langebartels/Love Food, News /Love Food /

December 29, 2022

When it comes to food, the highest and best use is to eat it. When eating food is not possible, we turn to other uses for food that are better options than landfilling. This month, Love Food, Fight Waste is highlighting the food hierarchy to delve into the best ways to manage food for people and the planet.

Monthly Topic Overview

The food hierarchy is helpful to break down all the different ways food can be managed and to identify which options are better than others, from a social, economic, and environmental perspective. Let’s break it down layer by layer.

#1 Source Reduction: Reducing food waste at the source (such as your home) is the best for you and the environment. When we eat the food we purchase, we save money and make less trash. There is a lot of energy, water, and other resources that go into growing and producing food, and when we eat it, we are making that whole process worth it!

Take Action: Learn how to reduce food waste at the source by checking out our past monthly promotions listed above under “Program Timeline.”

#2 Feed People: When there is more food than what a home or business can realistically consume or sell, donate it to feed others! Depending on where you live, there are different options on how to donate.

Take Action: Here in Iowa City, we have our food rescuers at Table to Table and CommUnity that do great work in this slice of our food hierarchy “pie.” Both organizations take nonperishable canned goods and fresh produce from gardens and Table to Table can accept leftover food from events. Donate or volunteer to make a difference!

#3 Feed Animals: When circumstances arise where food is unable to be distributed for people to eat, a great next use is to feed farm animals.

Take Action: If you know of a consistent food source that fits into this layer of the food hierarchy, there may be a local farmer interested in receiving it! Visit Practical Farmers to find a farmer near you.

#4 Industrial Uses: When food cannot be eaten or fed to animals, it can be utilized to produce energy. This is usually at the commercial or industrial scale.

#5 Compost: Composting is a great option when food cannot be utilized in the above, and is especially useful for non-edible types of food waste such as banana peels, eggshells, and coffee grounds. Composting is the process of facilitated decomposition in which food scraps and other organic materials are made into compost, a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Compost can be added to your yard or garden to give your soil a nutrient boost.

Take Action: For information on composting at home, curbside, or directly at the Compost Facility, visit the City of Iowa City’s food waste web page.

#6 Landfill: As a last resort option, food waste is legally allowed to be landfilled in most locations. This is considered the least recommended option because of many reasons. Organic material, such as food, in a landfill environment where there is no air or light produces a potent greenhouse gas known as methane. Throwing food away also wastes all the resources that went into growing and making that food in the first place.

Activity

If you compost:
- Look in your compost bin to see what different items have been thrown in. Are the food items non-edible, like coffee grounds, or are they food items that could have been eaten and instead were wasted, like moldy bread?
If you don’t compost:
- Look in your trash can to see what has been thrown away. Do you see any food items, and if so, were they food items that could have been eaten and instead were wasted?

Resources

EPA’s information on food hierarchy and composting
FoodPrint’s assortment of food waste reduction resources, including worm composting and regular composting tips, food waste reduction tips, and more!

Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.

Volunteer Spotlight: Dina Janzen’s essential role in a complex food recovery network

Anne Langebartels/News, Volunteer Spotlight /Volunteer Spotlight /

December 23, 2022

Dina Janzen’s interest in volunteering with Table to Table was piqued in January 2007 when she first noticed a volunteer picking up food at a donor partner. Now we’re celebrating Dina’s fifteenth year rescuing food with T2T!

Dina is currently one of three T2T volunteer drivers for what we refer to as our “Big Truck” route, picking up surplus warehouse food donations that account for 31% of the food T2T recovers. This food isn’t short-dated and adds variety to our deliveries, including gluten-free, vegetarian, and organic options. Driving our 22-ft straight truck, Dina stops at warehouse donors and loads literally tons of food on pallets directly into our truck quickly and efficiently.

What’s a key part of the volunteer role for Dina? “I absolutely love connecting with the people inside the backdoors of warehouses, stores and food pantries every week,” she says. “I find it fascinating to observe how the complex systems that exist to rescue all this food are constantly adapting. My part of this system is simple, but my role feels essential. A gratifying volunteer job indeed!”

Dina has collected food donations for T2T from warehouses since even before we procured our own big truck. Not too long ago, Dina loaded food donations off of pallets from warehouses by hand into a T2T van until no more would fit. She would then deliver the food to CommUnity Food Bank (then known as the Crisis Center), hand-unload it all, and stack it in their fridge or freezer space. Oh, if only we had the software then to track the amount of food that each of our volunteers rescues; Dina’s numbers would be off the charts!

Dina does what it takes, rain or shine, to make sure we connect great surplus food resources to folks who enjoy the food. We’re so grateful for her and her many years of dedication to our mission and community.

Get to know Dina:

What is one of your favorite food memories?
Baskin Robbins, 1972. Sugar cone with two scoops. Coffee ice cream on top of chocolate mint.

What are your hobbies?
Sewing, mah-jongg, bicycling around town, jigsaw puzzles, yoga, gardening, and searching for the most interesting AirBnbs.

What is your favorite dessert?
Homemade flan.

Join the Team! AmeriCorps Position

Anne Langebartels/News /

November 16, 2022

AmeriCorps Food Rescue Specialist

Position Summary:

The AmeriCorps Food Rescue Specialist will contribute to the hunger relief efforts in Johnson County by supporting the daily function of the food rescue program and its volunteers in a friendly and fast-paced environment. This person will be part of the team directing volunteers and actualizing smooth pick-up and delivery of food donations, and preparing T2T’s fleet of vehicles for food rescue routes. This position may also participate in the gleaning (harvesting) of excess produce from farms and gardens as well as getting the food to food-insecure individuals via pop-up free produce stands and other efforts with partner agencies. T2T serves as the hub for 60% of the food distributed by Johnson County’s hunger relief network. The best candidate is an energetic team player with strong communication skills who enjoys interacting with people of diverse ages and backgrounds.

About AmeriCorps

Being an AmeriCorps member is about making a tangible difference for communities and individuals dealing with some of our nation’s biggest challenges: poverty, inequity, homelessness, and lack of access to education. Summer AmeriCorps members help organizations with activities that work to alleviate the effects of poverty all across the country. As an AmeriCorps member you will serve in a project identified and managed by the community while earning a modest living allowance that reflects the income level of the community where you’re serving.

Reduce food waste for your gathering this season

Anne Langebartels/Love Food /

November 15, 2022

Our community celebrates a diversity of holidays during this time of year and one commonality among holiday gatherings is food. While feasts and large meal preparations can run the risk of producing food waste, they also present an opportunity to be proactive and creative in our approach to food in an effort to reduce waste.

Monthly Topic Overview

Food waste significantly increases from November to New Year’s. Why? Several major holidays take place during this two-month window that involve gatherings and celebrations oftentimes centered around food. This creates a unique environmental impact during the holiday season.

As food wasted has immense social, economic, and climatic impacts, choosing to reduce food waste is a great way to have a positive impact on your local community.

Reduce food waste with these tips:

Make a shopping list:
- Take a moment to plan your shopping list before leaving for the grocery store. When making the list, check your refrigerator and pantry to identify which ingredients you already have to avoid buying duplicates. Think through how many guests you will be serving and how that translates to the quantity of food needed.
- Making a list for holiday meal shopping provides you with a game plan when you walk in the store. This can keep you on track and lessen the chance of overbuying, plus it may reduce stress during a busy shopping season.
During meals, take only what you will eat:
- Be mindful of your serving size. Give yourself, or ask for, small portions. You can always go back for seconds!
Share leftovers with holiday guests:
- Having guests over for a big meal? Send them home with leftovers packed in to-go containers.
Use up leftover ingredients:
- Four recipe types that help to use up leftover ingredients are soups, sauces, casseroles, and smoothies! These categories allow for a lot of flexibility in terms of ingredients, which is great when we don’t always know what we might have leftover.
- Find recipes based on your available ingredients at home with Supercook or Big Oven.
Freeze, freeze, freeze!:
- Not going to eat it right away? Freeze food to preserve freshness.
- View the Freezing Prepared Foods Guide for freezing tips.
- Need a refresher on freezing and preserving foods? Read October’s Love Food, Fight Waste article on the topic here.
Keep an eye on the refrigerator:
- It can be easy for a container of strawberries or carton of milk to get unintentionally pushed to the back of the refrigerator and forgotten about. On a weekly basis, reorganize your refrigerator and move items that need to be eaten soon to the front to ensure they get used up.
Compost the unavoidable food waste items. We will always have turkey bones, eggshells, coffee grounds and other types of food that we do not traditionally eat. Handle these materials in an environmentally-friendly way with composting.
- Compost at the curb: If you live in a single family home up to a 4-plex apartment building, you receive curbside composting for food and yard waste. Learn more here: www.icgov.org/foodwaste.
- Compost at the Landfill’s Compost Facility: Service area residents that do not have access to curbside composting can take food waste and other organic materials directly to the Iowa City Landfill’s Compost Facility. Learn more here: www.icgov.org/landfill.

Activity

Try your hand at Save the Food’s “Guestimator.”

You can input your menu, the number of meals you want leftover, and the number of guests you’re having down to how big of an eater each guest is! Use this information to put together the next holiday meal you host and see how well the “Guestimator” did.

Resources

Search and generate recipes based on random ingredients in your kitchen:
- Supercook
- Big Oven
10 Meals for Almost Any Excess Ingredient
Save the Food’s “Guestimator” tool

Read more Love Food, Fight Waste topics, brought to you by Table to Table and the City of Iowa City.

T2T staff members grin as they harvest carrots in a farm field.

25-Year Impact Report: A letter from the director

Anne Langebartels/25 Year Impact Report, News /25-Year Impact Report /

November 4, 2022

For us to let anyone go without, when food is plentiful, is to say, “You don’t deserve to eat.”

As we wrap up our 25th year, we celebrate how far we’ve come and all that we’ve done together. Let me start our reflection on the past by painting a picture of the present.

Every pound counts…

In early 2022, 141 million dollars in emergency food assistance was cut from the State of Iowa budget, reducing benefits for every Iowan in the program. Meanwhile the USDA estimates that grocery prices have gone up by 11% in 2022.
Here on the ground, we’re seeing more neighbors seeking emergency food assistance than at any point in the last three years.
I recently read an account from a woman in another county who was turned away at her local pantry because she was a SNAP participant and they assumed she shouldn’t need more support. She writes, “I suddenly felt embarrassed and asked if she was sure. Like, hey, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really need the help.” The common experience is that SNAP helps but is just not enough. Then there are those who don’t qualify for the program at all. We won’t turn away our neighbors.
T2T staff on a glean at Trowel & Error Farm in 2022.

No one should feel embarrassed for trying to feed their family. As a society, we should be ashamed at the lengths our neighbors must go in order to access enough to eat. These folks are resourceful and resilient, prioritizing what little they have in ways that are most effective for their families. To make it work, many sacrifice a number of meals per week. Meanwhile, ever-tightening budgets limit affordability of the most nutritious foods.

…and we’re working harder for every pound

Food rescue organizations across the country have experienced unprecedented fluctuations in food donations.

Supply chain disruptions and inadequate staffing leave stores with bare shelves and fewer staff to pull food for donation. We must stop at donors more frequently to capture every available donation. More pick-ups mean more coordination, more volunteers, more fuel.
We have to maintain the capacity to say “yes” to more last-minute donations. Last month we got a call from a truck driver who had 700 pounds of ground beef, ribs, and roasts to offload in the next hour. With our new location and more staff, we readily accepted this valuable donation that we might have had to decline three years ago.
We’re harvesting directly from farms, working with more processors, and adding many smaller food outlets to our routes. The most requested foods are also the most costly to recover.

What does all this mean? Table to Table is working harder and investing more to capture every pound, and it is well worth the investment. Many of our partners would have to more than double their food purchasing budgets without our daily deliveries.

Your investment in Table to Table these past 25 years has fueled the flexibility and ingenuity of our team and our programs today.

Will you consider an additional gift this fall as we weather these new challenges and continue to build connections between abundance and hunger?

In gratitude,

Nicki Ross

On our founding, 25 years ago

Anne Langebartels/25 Year Impact Report /25-Year Impact Report /

October 19, 2022

“May this date, then, December 16, 1994, always be remembered as a monumental moment for addressing hunger locally—today, tomorrow, forever.” —Frank Lalor

A simple question begins a food rescue and distribution solution.

Frank Lalor stands next to an old food rescue vehicle. — In T2T’s early days, Frank would check the office answering machine from home for any messages about new food donations. One day, Frank’s son, Jerry, was in the kitchen while Frank checked messages. Jerry says his dad hung up the phone, turned around, and clapped his hands, exclaiming, “Hot dog, we got one!” We still share that sentiment. There’s nothing quite like the excitement of a new food rescue opportunity.

After watching C-SPAN coverage of a congressional hearing on food waste and hunger in America, Frank Lalor visited the Free Lunch Program of Iowa City and met its director at the time, Meg Kiekhaefer. Frank asked Meg if they could use more food.

“I was excited about it,” Meg remembers. “I said, ‘We’re always short on food, we could use it.’ He asked, ‘Could some of the other social service organizations use food?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah!’”

In 1995, Frank and Meg brought together community activists, dietitians, chefs, and potential donor and recipient agencies.

In October, they held their first meeting. All agreed that rescuing food in the Iowa City area was worth pursuing. They defined four initial goals:
• Distribute food to those in need, especially food that would otherwise go to waste,
• Identify organizations in the area that serve food,
• Determine how to collect and distribute this food, and
• Research how to secure funding.

In April 1996, Table to Table was granted nonprofit status in the State of Iowa and opened its first office in Old Brick in a space that was formerly a storage closet. With a small desk, a phone, and an answering machine, this space served as a home base for coordinating food deliveries.

Meg Kiekhaefer became the first T2T director. Volunteers used their personal vehicles—mostly station wagons and vans—for collection and distribution of food. T2T rescued 44,000 pounds of food that first year.

“In the beginning we didn’t have much, but we had heart!” – Frank Lalor

Just three ingredients in our recipe for food rescue success

Lessons learned from our first director Meg Kiekhaefer and current director Nicki Ross

Over the years, we’ve turned fortune and goodwill into nearly 30 million pounds of recovered food. What were the ingredients of that success?

Collaboration

In the early days, T2T leaders had a simple edict, as Meg says: “Don’t step on toes.” To seek collaboration and fill unmet needs has become one of our core values. Nicki adds, “We build our operation around what partners want and need without duplicating their good work.” Once it became clear partnership was our goal, new partners of all kinds turned to Table to Table.

Coordination

Very quickly we learned that scheduled routes worked more efficiently than a one-off approach. Logistical coordination to pair resources and needs makes the most of each food donation. Nicki notes, “Expert coordination increased overall efficiency.” And Meg adds, “Better utilization of volunteers, always in short supply.”

Community

Warmth, kindness, and gratitude have built a community invested in food recovery, and volunteers are at the heart of that. As Meg has seen, “Volunteers were and continue to be shining ambassadors. Their personal connections with the donors and nonprofit staff on their routes are priceless.”