Table to Table distributed 40,000+ pounds of excess produce harvested from generous local farms, donated directly by farmers and gardeners in our community, and recovered from farmers markets and auctions. We distributed 12,500 pounds of that at 36 free produce stands. We work with the public and 11 key community partners to identify neighborhoods where access to affordable fresh produce is more difficult. Read more about our produce stands and the partners who helped make them happen.
Partner Highlight: Since 2021, Echollective Farm has donated 30,000+ pounds of produce to local nonprofits.
“We truly could not have done this without the support of Table to Table. Having Table to Table’s support in gleaning at our farm as well as giving us one accessible, easy place to donate produce is truly invaluable… When organizations like Table to Table work to give everyone in the community access to freshly grown, Iowa produce – including those who are food insecure – we all benefit!” – Molly Schintler, Echollective Farm
New T2T partner Free Medical Clinic (FMC) serves marginalized neighbors, many of whom are unable to access consistent healthcare for chronic diseases. Now, through T2T deliveries, FMC is offering fresh, nutrient-dense foods recommended to clients by clinic doctors for improved health.
T2T volunteers truly embody a passion for recovering food and delivering it to our neighbors. Along the way, they develop strong relationships with those who donate and receive the rescued food.
Jasmine and Cheyenne take on a rescue on Saturday morning.
Two best pals who volunteer together on a weekly Saturday morning food rescue route, Cheyenne and Jasmine, chat with produce department staff when they pick up donations. They know each other by name and the employees seek this volunteer pair out each Saturday to make sure they don’t miss any food set aside for donation.
Have we mentioned Mary Palmberg? Well, we’re going to again. Mary is T2T’s longest-serving volunteer, now in her 25th year. Throughout her roles at T2T since 1998, she’s been an ambassador to our community, using every opportunity to promote and garner support for our mission. Mary builds great relationships with food donors, increasing their donations and commitment to our mission. She makes T2T deliveries memorable for recipient agencies and their volunteers, expressing sincere and heartfelt gratitude for their partnership and work.
Dina poses with the T2T straight truck, ready to deliver pallets of food.
Dina Janzen has driven T2T’s straight truck to deliver pallets of food for years. “I absolutely love connecting with the people inside the back doors 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.”
T2T volunteers enjoy forging global connections, too. T2T was fortunate to host Fellows of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders through the University of Iowa’s International Institute for Business for two days this year. Fellows recovered food on routes and gleans alongside T2T volunteers and discussed the innovative work they’re doing in their own communities in countries across Africa – a great learning experience for all involved.
T2T volunteers are essential to retail food rescue, fleet prep, driving our straight truck, office work and data, gleans at farms and orchards, community outreach, free produce stands, and more! Learn how to get involved.
It’s been a year of transition and bringing enthusiastic new team members into the operation at Table to Table. We’d like to take a few minutes to recognize the contributions of the staff, student leaders, and AmeriCorps team since last summer.
Staff Team Transitions & Additions
We bid a fond farewell to Program Coordinator Ezra Schley in July 2022, who had been with us since summer 2020. That September, Chaim Jensen joined T2T as our newly-titled Logistics & Relationships Coordinator. Having worked on the supply side of the food system for years, Chaim understands all too well the barriers and opportunities to reduce food waste. His work also helps T2T build and maintain relationships with food donor partners. He says he “was attracted to the problem-solving aspect of the position, knowing that no two days are the same.” He’s right: that’s the very nature of food rescue!
T2T added a new (and proven essential!) full-time staff position to our team in November 2022. Operations Coordinator Elizabeth Wagner was first introduced to T2T in her work at longtime food donor partner New Pioneer Co-op, where she developed an interest in the local food system and got to know food vendors and producers. “I was really drawn to T2T’s community-focused approach and dedication to fighting food waste,” she says. “Community engagement and sustainability are two passions of mine.”Her new position improves our software and data abilities, supports our fleet and facility, and ensures daily operations run smoothly to support T2T’s growth.
Program Assistant Steve Noack, known as a friendly face to greet volunteers and launch them on their food rescue routes each morning, fully retired (motivated in part by his adorable new grandson) in fall 2022. The team welcomed Gina Hudson into this part-time role in December, with the new, more-descriptive title of Dispatcher & Driver. Gina brings her volunteer experience at food banks and farm animal sanctuaries to this role that involves much communication with volunteers, food donors, and food access partner organizations. “It is a human right to have access to food and to nutritious food,” she says. “I believe this is also a crucial environmental issue by rescuing the food and keeping it out of the landfills where food becomes a substantial contributor to climate change.”
AmeriCorps Service Members
At the end of 2022, Table to Table bid a fond farewell to our Data Systems Coordinator, Alex Courtney. Each day since we’ve utilized software he helped us tailor to our specific food recovery needs during his AmeriCorps service term and later as a part-time staff member. At the beginning of Alex’s service in early 2021, T2T was tracking over two million pounds of 10,000+ food pick-ups and deliveries, 150 partnerships, and hundreds of volunteers on paper and in Excel spreadsheets. Alex ushered our technology into the twenty-first century, enabling us to analyze all sorts of data points that tell us about food sourcing, distribution, and to understand critical patterns in the hunger relief network as a whole. With this data at our fingertips, we can take action to improving our network and continue to connect as much nutritious food as possible to our most vulnerable neighbors. (Join a virtual demonstration of this technology in action on November 29!)
In November 2022, Nora Garda completed her second service term as AmeriCorps Gleaning Coordinator through the ISU 4-H Outreach program. Nora helped lead T2T to recovering more than 40,000 pounds of local produce during the 2022 growing seasons. Hear her love for connecting fresh food from the growing community to our neighbors straight from Nora: she wrote this insightful reflection on a gleaning season after her first service term in 2021.
Throughout summer 2022, two local produce recovery AmeriCorps service members supported this work. Molly Suter worked closely with Nora in gleaning coordination to schedule and lead gleans with local farmers and volunteers. Alyssa Schaeffer planned and implemented T2T’s free produce stands. She helped create a regular produce stand schedule and reached additional folks through free produce coolers for self-service at community events.
Also in summer 2022, seasonal AmeriCorps service member Lillian Poulsen developed food access education and diversity, equity, and inclusion training materials requested by food recipient partner agencies. “Supporting marginalized communities, especially in terms of better equipping volunteers and other people who want to help, drew me to this position. I’ve always been someone who’s willing to listen and wants to hear stories from others,” she says of the role.
Ngonyo Mungara joined the team as a COVID-19 Recovery AmeriCorps member during the first half of 2023 for general food rescue program support to support route based rescue and increase food donations. “It was a pleasure to get to know volunteers from so many different walks of life and learn why they like volunteering for Table to Table,” she says of one of her favorite aspects of the role. “I liked that each day was something different; you never get bored at T2T!” During her tenure she took our first steps in partnering with grocers offering specific cultural foods. She is excited to see this program to access culturally appropriate foods continues to grow. She notes, “Johnson County is becoming an increasingly diverse area and there is a need for more culturally relevant foods in pantries to support these communities.”
Lisa Truong and Marquis Heard served as local produce recovery AmeriCorps members in summer 2023. Lisa took on farm, orchard, and garden glean coordination, forming relationships with new partners and coordinating at least 25 gleans during her four month term. She also transitioned the program to a regular schedule that fit farmer needs, an enhancement that increased gleaning opportunities and produce output. As a bonus, she frequently baked veggie-based desserts to share. Vegetables + Desserts = Delicious! Marquis coordinated free produce stands, setting a regular schedule for each produce stand location and helping to translate free produce stand materials. We’re so happy he is continuing his service at T2T in a yearlong term through Green Iowa AmeriCorps.
Practicum & Internship Students
Amiya Jones sought out T2T as a partner for completing her Masters in Social Work practicum during the 2022-2023 school year. She was excited to learn more about environmental and food justice work in nonprofits through working closely with T2T executive director Nicki Ross. “I have always been passionate about food insecurity and building self sustaining communities within my journey as a social worker,” she said of her role. Amiya supported T2T’s efforts to revise our mission statement and implement values, practices, and training to support equity and access initiatives.
Lauren Wegmann, a student in marketing and philanthropy, jumped right into helping T2T plan our annual dinner in spring 2023. Her enthusiasm helped T2T surpass our fundraising goal for the event!
Whew! So many transitions and so many wonderful team members!
With all those transitions, the rest of the crew can’t be overlooked: we continued to have throughout fiscal year 2023 our seasoned Executive Director Nicki Ross, Communications & Development Coordinator Anne Langebartels (now Hlavacek), Volunteer Coordinator Jared Long, part-time Bookkeeper, Celia Eckermann, and Programs & Services Manager Allison Gnade, who celebrated one year in the role this past February.
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.
“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.
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.”
By Charlotte Fairlie, current Table to Table volunteer
While Table to Table’s mission statement focuses on alleviating hunger, increased understanding of the contribution of food waste to climate change has led to greater awareness of our positive environmental impact. Rescuing food reduces resource use as well as emissions at both the production and landfill stages of the food system. Even accounting for our present fleet of conventional vans, we are significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to a 2019 study, “The yearly total emissions saved after T2T vehicular inputs is equivalent to the CO2 emissions from 17,400 pounds of coal burned or more than 2 million smartphones charged or about 39,000 miles driven by an average passenger vehicle” (Ayers, Thomas, Wiener).
Over our next 25 years, we will continue doing our part to help Iowa City reach its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
As far back as 1999, T2T leaders were focused on education and the global good. In a related memo that year, Frank Lalor remarked, “It’s great getting pounds and pounds of food, but from an ecological and global point of view, we have much to learn. Perhaps our group can focus on these points, and thus help to make the world locally and globally a better place.”
Table to Table’s route-based food rescue is a unique model that matches food donations directly to recipients during each three-hour route. In traditional models, the food is brought back to a warehouse where recipient partners place an order and pick it up later in the week. Or these partners pick up food donations directly from a store, using their own resources, and all donations from a store go to a single recipient agency. Sometimes it’s not enough food and sometimes it’s more of one item than a single agency is able to use.
Route-based rescue matches the right amount of food to the right partners immediately. The benefits of this model are many; it reduces waste by getting food to tables more quickly, allows partners to choose what fits their needs, and increases variety for the entire system. Food rescue efforts in similarly-sized communities using other models are usually unable to reach the efficiency or food donation totals that we experience here in Johnson County. Our daily delivery schedule increases food donations and allows recipient agencies to refill their limited storage repeatedly during the week.
In our early years, consolidating local food rescue to Table to Table wasn’t easy. “It took convincing,” says David Wellendorf, T2T Volunteer & Transportation Manager from 2002-2017. “You needed to convince the donor and recipient that this will work while looking at your logistic means to make sure you don’t oversell your ability…It’s a big puzzle.”
We asked David, how did you do it, in the beginning?
“Tenaciousness.” That’s how it happened, he says. “And we loved it.”
David, what kept you engaged and loving the work?
“The volunteers—Are you kidding? The passion of each person coming in and saying, ‘I want to make a difference.”
T2T food rescue route volunteer Al Stang loads food donations into the T2T vehicle in 2015.
The volunteer route-based model is essential to food rescue success. This year, volunteers provided over 20,000 hours of service at Table to Table.
Developing and maintaining a stable workforce of volunteers is critical to the success of the T2T operation.
As David says of those early years, “Logistically we could’ve set the world on fire, but our logistical abilities outpaced the money we could bring in.” Volunteers were critical, but by 2016 not having enough staff or space to manage those complicated logistics was holding the organization back. That year, T2T recovered nearly two million pounds of food with three staff in a 700-sq. ft. basement office — a truly remarkable feat, but unsustainable.
Fortunately, T2T had proven that this crazy idea could work, and with the support of our community grew our resources to make large scale food rescue sustainable. In 2002, T2T was running two routes each day. Now, we run about 45 routes a week. How? With the same community dedication and partnerships that launched Table to Table 25 years ago–only now with six staff, 100+ food donor partners, 50 recipient partners, and 150+ regular volunteers.
Theresa Carbrey, former Education Director at New Pi and T2T founding member, continues to volunteer with T2T to harvest food at local farms today.
In the 1990s, New Pioneer Food Co-op donated produce for soup directly to the Iowa City Free Lunch Program.
“The Co-op was made up of very community-minded people, very aware of community issues, so they worked to get leftover food to organizations that would get it to people who needed it,” Theresa Carbrey, former Education Director at New Pi and T2T founding member, says. When the idea for a centralized network of food recovery began to form in the mid-90s, Theresa and New Pi were immediately on board as one of our first donors and continue to this day.
“Because Table to Table exists, we don’t have to ‘figure it out’ – food transport, etc.,” explains Amy Hospodarsky, Brand Manager at New Pi. “Table to Table fills a gap that we don’t have to.”
New Pi commits to food recovery as part of their mission to serve the community with a sense of environmental and social responsibility. “We were founded with values that include being responsible stewards of the food we eat and the land we use,” says Amy. “Table to Table helps us reduce food waste and gives people access to natural food products.”
“Our mission marries up so closely with T2T,” Amy continues. “We do appreciate how important it is that T2T exists – we did then, we still do now.”
Program Assistant Steve Noack, known as a friendly face to greet volunteers and launch them on their food rescue routes each morning, fully retired (motivated in part by his adorable new grandson) in fall 2022. The team welcomed Gina Hudson into this part-time role in December, with the new, more-descriptive title of Dispatcher & Driver. Gina brings her volunteer experience at food banks and farm animal sanctuaries to this role that involves much communication with volunteers, food donors, and food access partner organizations. “It is a human right to have access to food and to nutritious food,” she says. “I believe this is also a crucial environmental issue by rescuing the food and keeping it out of the landfills where food becomes a substantial contributor to climate change.”
Also in summer 2022, seasonal AmeriCorps service member Lillian Poulsen developed food access education and diversity, equity, and inclusion training materials requested by food recipient partner agencies. “Supporting marginalized communities, especially in terms of better equipping volunteers and other people who want to help, drew me to this position. I’ve always been someone who’s willing to listen and wants to hear stories from others,” she says of the role.
Lisa Truong and Marquis Heard served as local produce recovery AmeriCorps members in summer 2023. Lisa took on farm, orchard, and garden glean coordination, forming relationships with new partners and coordinating at least 25 gleans during her four month term. She also transitioned the program to a regular schedule that fit farmer needs, an enhancement that increased gleaning opportunities and produce output. As a bonus, she frequently baked veggie-based desserts to share. Vegetables + Desserts = Delicious! Marquis coordinated free produce stands, setting a regular schedule for each produce stand location and helping to translate free produce stand materials. We’re so happy he is continuing his service at T2T in a yearlong term through Green Iowa AmeriCorps.
Whew! So many transitions and so many wonderful team members!
In gratitude,
