Team News

We Bid Farewell and Good Luck to Communications & Development Coordinator Anne Hlavacek

May 24, 2024

It’s with mixed emotions that we announce that Anne Hlavacek (née Langebartels) is leaving T2T to return to university to further her education.

In 2019, Anne joined us as our first development and communications staff. Before T2T, Anne served as an AmeriCorps Vista at Feed Iowa First, where she built their new development and outreach role. This made her uniquely qualified to do something similar at Table to Table. After only a few months on the team, we were particularly fortunate to have her support during the challenging pandemic years when nothing was normal and our template for communications and engagement went out the window.

Anne has been incredibly adept at communicating challenging concepts about food access & equity, food recovery, and the value of nonprofit work in both writing and design. Some of her favorite projects and most meaningful projects include

25 Years of Impact Report – Anne’s huge investment of effort into interviews, archive review, writing, and design is evident in this representation of the T2T legacy.
“Greatest Table” card – packed full of great information in an easy to read design that makes you want to know more.
The Power of Partnerships – in our most recent report to the community, Anne highlighted work that represents our values of collaboration, equity, appreciation, and love.

Through this incredible work and so much more not listed here, she has helped raise the profile and recognition of Table to Tables critical contributions to the community. Anne’s efforts have also helped T2T significantly build our program capacity. High fundraising performance of appeals and fundraising initiatives funded additional operational capacity that increased our food collection by 750,000 pounds.

When Anne joined the team, the road ahead was filled with opportunity and challenge which she approached with diligence and creativity. She has helped us build a strong, sustainable foundation for our relationships with funders, volunteers, and our community as a whole. We wish Anne well as she embarks upon her MFA journey at Iowa State University where we know she’ll build new skills and relationships that will continue to have a lasting impact on her community.

Know someone who might be interested in joining the team as our new Communications Coordinator – read more about the position here.

Ngonyo Reflects on the Surprises of Food Recovery during her AmeriCorps Service at T2T

Anne Langebartels/News, Team News /AmeriCorps /

December 26, 2023

Table to Table welcomed Ngonyo Mungara to the team in January of 2023 in our final contingent of COVID-19 Recovery AmeriCorps service members. Ngonyo focused on supporting T2T’s daily operations, food rescue routes, free produce stands, and increasing food and vegetable starter plant donations during her half-year term serving in her role of food rescue specialist.

As a student at the University of Iowa majoring in Education Studies and Human Relations with a certificate in Public Health, Ngonyo was drawn to this role at T2T by an interest in learning how nonprofits operate on a day-to-day basis and practice sustainability. “I’ve always been interested in sustainability and reducing waste and I thought food rescue was a really interesting way to help others while also reducing waste,” she says.

Once she completed her service term, she took some time to reflect on her experience in food rescue:

“Serving at T2T taught me so much more about the Iowa City and Johnson County community. I never knew there were so many programs and people in our area dedicated to helping those in need. It also made me happy to learn that many of the businesses I shop at are partnered with Table to Table and are doing their part to reduce food waste and support our community. It has been a pleasure to work with the T2T staff. Everyone here has been so helpful, friendly, and welcoming and it has made my time here so enjoyable. The staff and volunteers here have such a positive and flexible attitude, and that is something that’s needed in this work where each day can be so different.

“My favorite thing about working here was working with different volunteers while filling in on routes. Going on food rescue routes and helping to recover food for people in need while reducing food waste was such rewarding work. While on routes, I had many encounters with our partners where they would tell us how much they love what we’re doing and how happy they are that Table to Table exists. It amazes me that T2T has such a large and dedicated group of volunteers who devote their time to helping support our food rescue efforts. It was a pleasure to get to know volunteers from so many different walks of life and learn why they like volunteering for T2T… You never get bored at Table to Table!

“Towards the end of my service term I started to reach out to the cultural grocery stores in the Johnson County area in the hopes that they will consider donating to Table to Table. Johnson County is becoming an increasingly diverse area and there is a need for more culturally relevant foods in pantries to support these communities. T2T will continue reaching out to these businesses in the future and we hope that we can find ways to get a more diverse selection of food to our recipients.”

To conclude, we asked Ngonyo to tell us about one of her most interesting experiences on a food rescue route. She remembers: “On one food rescue route we accepted shoes from Natural Grocers. I wasn’t sure which partner would take them, but we ended up delivering them to the Salvation Army hot meal and social assistance site.” The situation turned out to be quite serendipitous: “The woman [greeting us to receive donations at the Salvation Army] was so excited that we had shoes and told us there was a man there who had been needing a new pair for a long time now and had been asking for them everyday.”

The world of food rescue is truly unpredictable – We usually just collect food! – but thanks to our donor partners’ creativity in keeping resources from going to waste and our food access partners’ deep engagement with community members, we’re delighted to help match occasional donation surprises with community needs.

We were so grateful to have Ngonyo on the team and appreciate the thoughtfulness, dedication, and knowledge she brought to her role!

It Takes a Village…to raise a Food Rescue to the Next Level

Anne Langebartels/Annual Impact Report 2023, News, Team News /FY23 Annual Impact Report, staff /

October 23, 2023

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.

View our current staff & Board of Directors team on our website.

Film reflection with the food rescue team

Anne Langebartels/News, Team News /AmeriCorps, events, staff /

September 12, 2022

Table to Table staff discuss documentary “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story”

A bell pepper seedling blooms on the screen as Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” begins to play. The camera follows one pepper as it forms on the plant, is picked, and is transported to a processing facility. It’s placed in a box with several other peppers, shipped to a grocery store, set on the produce shelf, and finally purchased by a lucky consumer.

After its months-long journey it is placed in that person’s refrigerator. We watch as the pepper turns yellow, then orange and red – then it loses its shape as it rots on the shelf, forgotten.

As we watch, every member of the Table to Table team groans or exclaims once it becomes clear no one is going to eat that beautiful pepper. For a team that spends all their working hours rescuing food from such a fate, it’s almost painful to watch.

In Just Eat It: A food waste story, filmmakers Jen and Grant decide that for six months, they will only eat food that was headed for the waste stream. They source this food by asking grocery stores if they can look through items that have been culled from shelves, or by going straight to the dumpsters behind stores to see what’s available. T2T staff gathered to preview the film together before we showed it on the big screen at our drive-in movie night. Here’s our take.

It is important to note that T2T rescues food before it reaches dumpsters. In the model we use, food donor partners set aside good food that otherwise would have been tossed for a variety of reasons unrelated to whether the food was still edible: there was an error in ordering and they have too much, containers are mislabeled, or it’s “ugly” produce or getting close to the “sell by” date and consumers aren’t likely to buy it. Table to Table volunteers collect this food from stores and deliver it to hunger relief partners within a few hours.

Lauren delivers a cart of rescued food to CommUnity Food Bank — **T2T volunteer Lauren delivers food she just rescued to CommUnity Food Bank.**

At least one-third of all food produced worldwide isn’t eaten. Just Eat It is an attempt at answering the questions, “What impact does this have? Why does the world let so much food go to waste?”

Wasted food affects our climate. Once large amounts of food are compacted together in landfills and rotting, they produce methane. “Methane is a potent greenhouse gas MANY times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere – and the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone,” Nora Garda, T2T Gleaning Coordinator, observes after watching the film.

Molly Suter, Local Foods Recovery Specialist, adds, “Through wasting food, we are directly contributing to the quickly changing climate of our own planet.”

**Just Eat It Director and film subject Grant Baldwin is shocked to find a swimming pool sized dumpster filled with discarded hummus. Credit: Peg Leg Films–Scene from Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story**

Resources that went into producing the food are also wasted. Several T2T staff were shocked to learn that throwing away one hamburger is equivalent in water usage to taking a 90 minute shower. “The water used to produce the total amount of food the world throws away can provide water for 500 million people,” Molly says, which then raises her question, “What other overlaps with social issues exist with food waste?”

“It’s an issue of environmental justice in terms of who has access to the food in the first place, AND people who need this water and this good food often don’t have access to it,” Lillian Poulsen, Food Access & Equity Training Specialist, notes. “In my role, I focus on access and equity in terms of education for our partners and the volunteers with whom they work. The issue of environmental justice is a key facet of what we do as an organization, and the amount of food wasted in our country, state, county, and community directly affects the lives of poor and marginalized communities where food insecurity is most prevalent.”

The documentary states that the majority of food waste comes from households, pointing out that generally individuals waste up to a quarter of what they buy from the store. The documentary demonstrates with a particularly effective illustration: “Imagine walking out of the grocery store with four bags loaded with food and you drop one in the parking lot on the way to your car…and you just leave it there.”

A grocery store customer drops a bag of groceries in the parking lot and leaves it behind. — Consumers waste about 25% of the food they buy. Imagine having 4 bags of groceries, dropping one in the parking lot, and just leaving it there. Credit: Peg Leg Films–Scene from Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story

What contributes to this level of waste?

One issue pointed out by Nicki Ross, Executive Director, is “this idea that we determine what we will eat by first asking, ‘what do I feel like eating?’ She adds, “My family didn’t always have a lot growing up and one of the skills we developed is making a pretty good meal with whatever was left in the fridge or cupboard. ‘Do I really want that?’ is partially the product of a wealthy society.”

“It’s important to highlight how our culture views food in terms of abundance,” Lillian says. “The movie talked about how it’s seen as a failure in our culture when food runs out [at a party, for example], and wasting food isn’t taboo.”

“In the end I was disheartened to think about the waste that is created by me as a consumer and the way that stores order and stock food to appease the consumer, from rejecting perfectly good fruit because the shape is not ‘perfect’, to ordering way more than needed so that the shelves always look full,” Jared Long, Volunteer Coordinator, says.

Nicki adds, “It’s not uncommon for food sellers to have this opinion. They don’t want to ‘ruin their image’ by offering ‘ugly’ or discounted products. Interesting fact: Retailer standards far exceed that of the state for food safety/quality reasons.” Retailers who donate food are also protected under the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act.

“How can we change consumer/grocery store standards so grocery stores don’t only display ‘perfect-looking’ products and consumers don’t insist on only that?” Celia Eckermann, Bookkeeper, asks. The only item required by the FDA to include Best By dates for safety is infant formula. She continues, “How do we educate the public on the meaning of those dates and get manufacturers to adjust the wording so grocery stores and consumers don’t waste dated products?” (Learn more about how to decode Best By, Use By, and Sell By dates here.)

Fruits and vegetables are the most-wasted food group. What stood out from the film to Alyssa Schaeffer, Local Foods Access Specialist who coordinates free produce stands, was “how much food gets wasted at the beginning of the food system cycle. A lot of food gets left in the field, which is where T2T gleaning and free produce stands come into play.”

Samira and Alyssa stand at a table loaded with free produce — Samira (left), Community Resource Navigator at Coralville Public Library, and Alyssa are ready to welcome folks to a free produce stand at Coralville Community Food Pantry. With increased fresh produce from gleaning and garden recovery, T2T is organizing neighborhood free produce stands in partnership with local pantries and neighborhood centers, reducing barriers to fresh produce access.

In the film, a celery farmer is shown letting half the cut celery go to waste out in the field because it won’t fit in the bags it’s sold in and it isn’t economical to pay for labor costs to collect it. A situation like this is where T2T comes to the rescue, literally. We send teams of volunteers to local farmers’ fields to glean extra produce at no charge. Farmers don’t want their produce to be wasted; there is just no financial or time incentive to harvest everything they produce.

“I wish every community had a Table to Table,” Molly adds. “I wish everyone was more cognizant of the tremendous amount of food wasted and how it connects to other issues.”

T2T recovers over 2 million pounds of food each year in Johnson County and connects this abundance to the great need in our community. You can help! Learn more about volunteering, or make a donation. Are you a gardener? Bring your extra produce to our office and we’ll distribute it.

Missed our screening of “Just Eat It?” You can watch it here – then let us know what you think! Send your observations and questions to us at info@table2table.org.

Celebrating one year with our Program Assistant, Steve Noack

Anne Langebartels/News, Team News /staff /

July 8, 2022

We’re celebrating the first work anniversary of our Program Assistant, Steve Noack! Steve started at Table to Table on June 3, 2021, and hit the ground running. He quickly jumped in and was an invaluable member of our team before we knew it, bringing with him skills that we didn’t even know we would soon need.

Steve was attracted to T2T because he felt that food rescue is a great cause, because of the efficiency of our model (that’s engineer speak), and because he had been familiar with T2T for quite a while and admired our mission. “Rescuing food, reducing the waste of such a valuable resource, addressing food insecurity, and doing all of that with a relatively limited budget utilizing finite resources is really quite impressive and something that I wanted to be a part of,” he says (roughly paraphrased, with permission).

Steve delivers coffee to coworkers — Occasionally you’ll find Steve making a surprise coffee delivery!

Steve’s title is Program Assistant (Official) and In House Iowa State Advocate (Unofficial). Steve has a degree in Engineering from ISU and an MBA from Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). We’re not sure what all the criteria were that Steve used to select SVSU, but it does appear as though their mascot is a Cardinal, not all that different from ISU’s.

Outside of his engineering expertise, Steve has also volunteered or worked through the years at many area nonprofits, including Iowa City Free Lunch, Shelter House, and Successful Living. Steve has used these skills to not only help plan and launch food rescue routes, but we also utilized Steve’s experience in planning and designing our new space at Pepperwood Plaza.

We truly have been fortunate to find someone of Steve’s ilk to become a member of our team. If you haven’t had the chance yet, please take a moment to say hello and ask him about any number of topics, including but not limited to: the Cyclones, cars, tires (he surprisingly knows quite a bit), fire safety and safe egress, his new grandson, lava lamps, how crypto currency works, and lest we forget, the efficiency of route-based food rescue.

Introduction written by Jared Long, Volunteer Coordinator

Nicki Ross Celebrates 5 Years as T2T Executive Director

Anne Langebartels/News, Team News /letters from the director, staff /

May 20, 2022

T2T staff, volunteers, Board members, and partner organizations compiled this post to honor Nicki for her five years of leadership of Table to Table:

This spring marked Nicki Ross’s fifth anniversary at Table to Table! Nicki began as T2T’s Executive Director in March of 2017. Through caring leadership and a passion for finding ways to connect an abundance of nutritious food to our neighbors, Nicki has guided our organization through major increases in pounds of food rescued, a pandemic, and a relocation during the pandemic – just to name a few milestones.

During Nicki’s leadership, Table to Table has grown from rescuing 1.8 million pounds of food a year to rescuing 2.4 million pounds each year. We’ve done this by increasing our number of food rescue routes by 43% – from 35 routes each week to 50 routes a week. Hundreds of volunteers contribute to T2T’s accomplishments through rescuing food on routes, preparing our fleet, assisting with office needs, harvesting produce at local farms, planning fundraisers, and gifting their skills and talents for special projects that build T2T’s capacity to do good work for our community.

“When Nicki took the helm at Table to Table, it was already a respected, established organization, but it has risen to new heights under her leadership,” writes Charlotte Fairlie, T2T food rescue route volunteer. “The office is alive with a talented, expanding staff, whose hard work and ideas have led to new initiatives, such as last summer’s [produce] pop-ups. The network of community connections has spread, leading to an effective synergy among agencies.”

That synergy has benefited the entire Johnson County hunger relief network. Close relationships with recipient partners allow T2T to meet current needs to the best of our ability as quickly as possible. Coralville Community Food Pantry Executive Director John Boller shares: “Nicki is one of the most genuine, compassionate, and collaboration-focused nonprofit leaders that I know.”

In 2020, one result of Nicki’s collaborative efforts was the founding of the Iowa Gleaning Network to rescue farm crops and increase Iowans’ fresh produce resources. And T2T collaborations with community partners have led to produce pop-up distributions in neighborhoods to share high-nutrient foods while reducing barriers to food access. T2T has also prioritized collecting dairy, meat, and produce – valuable items for pantries – and increased those by more than 30% overall in the past five years. These efforts continued during the pandemic.

In 2020, Nicki wrote: “Letting any nutritious food go to waste at a time when some of our hunger relief partners were serving double and triple the number of people in need is simply unacceptable.” Reflecting on the first year of the pandemic: “For our neighbors enduring this health and financial crisis, T2T deliveries are the difference between families nourishing themselves with good protein, fresh fruits, and veggies or filling their bellies with food that is plentiful, cheap, and far less nutritious. During this time, T2T delivered enough food for at least one nutritious meal per day for every food insecure family in Johnson County.”

Nicki on a winter food rescue route with T2T staff and volunteers — T2T volunteers and staff rescue food in every season!

What makes Nicki a strong leader? “Her ability to have a real vision of what our organization can be, along with the ability to see and be aware of all the details that need to be addressed,” says Tom Jepson, T2T volunteer and former Board member. “I don’t know that I have come across a leader that has those two traits together.”

“It’s difficult to believe she has only been with Table to Table for 5 years–she leads like a veteran decision-maker and has guided the organization to exciting new heights in such a short amount of time,” John Boller adds.

“Also of note is the fact that Nicki was chosen as the Outstanding Executive Director by the United Way in only her second year in our community,” Tom Jepson points out.

Food rescue depends on the people behind it. “As a volunteer, I feel valued,” says Mary Kelley, who volunteers on a weekly Friday route with her husband Mike, and recently joined the Table to Table Board of Directors. Volunteers now collectively contribute 20,000 hours to T2T’s mission per year, their numbers having grown by 80% since 2017.

“Besides the statistics that provide evidence of Nicki’s success, I would add that, equally importantly, she fosters a cheerful, welcoming atmosphere in the office,” says Charlotte Fairlie. The supportive and welcoming culture Nicki has helped foster at T2T comes back to her appreciation for the T2T team of staff and volunteers.

In 2021, Nicki wrote: “Let me express one more time gratefulness for our T2T team and the staff and volunteers of all our partners who work tirelessly. Their commitment was unbowed by the sustained adversity of this year. Their work, guided by their hearts, their creativity, and courage allowed us to innovate and lead. I am incredibly proud to see them do what sometimes seems impossible.”

“Nicki constantly strives to make things better… she inspires all of us to do our best!” Mary Kelley adds.

We’d like to echo John Boller’s closing sentiment: “Here’s to another 5 years!”

Talk with Nicki and T2T staff in person at our 25th Anniversary Dinner! Ticket sales for this fundraiser help us do critical work in redistributing abundance to our neighbors. Get yours here!

A season in the life of a gleaner: Nora reflects on her time at T2T

Anne Langebartels/News, Team News /AmeriCorps, local food /

December 10, 2021

By Nora Garda, T2T Gleaning Coordinator through AmeriCorps 4H Environmental Education

As the Gleaning Coordinator at Table to Table, I facilitated efforts to address the problems of food insecurity and food waste by working with local farmers who have excess produce, volunteers willing to harvest it, and recipient organizations serving our neighbors. Being able to rescue fresh produce that would otherwise go to waste and donate this produce to those in need has been extremely rewarding. I had multiple opportunities to chat with farmers and the recipients; farmers were very grateful for the service we provided while recipients were genuinely thankful to be getting locally-grown, fresh produce.

I must say that beyond the incredible volume of fresh, delicious and healthy food we collected and distributed, what really gave sense to my experience was this community I felt a part of; it made the entire process heartwarming.

I love to garden, I love vegetables and I love being outdoors. I also have a passion for people. These have been nine amazing months! What else can I ask for?

Things I learned:

It is wonderful to get the morning sunshine while working in the fields.
It is good to be plugged into the local food system.
It is valuable and exciting to learn how food is grown; the growers we worked with were so knowledgeable and passionate about growing the best quality food. I loved learning from them! It was so nice to develop a personal connection with so many of them.
I didn’t know that urban agriculture was a “thing” in Johnson County. I had no idea there were so many farms in the city. So, learning about this small -but growing- movement of young people seeking out a more agricultural life was surprising and exciting. These hardworking, idealistic young farmers live around us. They invest hours and hours of their lives researching, connecting to the soil, experimenting with new crops, and growing quality produce. And what is even better, they don’t hesitate to donate the excess to those less fortunate. It gives me hope in humanity.
The gleaning volunteers were awesome!!! Service-oriented, community-involved and outdoor lovers! It was great to get to know new people from all age groups! I got to work with teenagers, families, college students, and retirees. We shared many big laughs and friendly conversations; the camaraderie was touching. There was always a real sense of teamwork. I feel lucky to have met so many great people!
It was a time to practice flexibility and adaptability. Every glean was an adventure. We gleaned when it was 90+ degrees and sunny. We gleaned in the rain. We gleaned in bitter cold days. We gleaned when we couldn’t find the field, when we didn’t bring enough boxes. We couldn’t lift the boxes containing hundreds of pounds of watermelons! We found ourselves in wet fields and with every step we would sink into mud. And we could be called upon to glean at any time on any farm; we never knew exactly when we were going to be out there. But in the end, none of these situations stopped us or slowed us down. We had a can-do attitude and we made it happen every single time, through teamwork.
Our new partnership with Twin County Produce Auction (TCPA) added a new level of adventure. The huge success of collecting excess produce donated from farmers at the auction was a surprise for us at T2T and for those at TCPA! I greatly enjoyed getting to know their community in the process, ending with hugs at the end of the season.
And finally, T2T staff is the best!!!! Friendly, helpful, committed, thoughtful, knowledgeable and, above all, nice, nice people. After 30 years in the corporate/scientific world, my time as Gleaning Coordinator at T2T has been a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed every single minute here.

Working for a good cause always makes me feel good, and the shared sense of fellowship with volunteers, farmers and the T2T team made this an enlightening experience.

Reflections on Two Summers of Gleaning Across Iowa

Table to Table/News, Team News /AmeriCorps /

November 16, 2021

by Jayne Meacham, Iowa Gleaning Network Program Development Coordinator

When I came to Iowa Gleaning Network as the Program Development Coordinator there was pretty much nothing there but opportunity, pulled from the founder’s brains into reality through their knowledge of the food system landscape and hunger in Iowa. By talking to the right people at the right time, and sheer determination and perseverance, IGN was formed to push forward food justice and increase access to healthy food during the economic crisis brought on by the Covid19 pandemic.

I was brought on by Table to Table to organize the Network and lead the three gleaning coordinators, who had already been hired ahead of me, meaning I had to hit the ground running. On top of that, my first week was only a few days after eastern Iowa had been hit by a derecho, a freak storm of direct, high-speed winds that devastated much of the area, and left thousands, including myself and my family, without power for many days. Being thrown into this new position at this extra-tumultuous time gave me a glimpse of what food rescues, and community-minded people in general, can do in a time of acute crisis. In my neighborhood I saw folks helping each other to clear large branches, directing traffic around obstacles and down cleared streets, and extension cords and power strips extending from generators to share limited power so neighbors could at least reach their loved ones.

When I got to Table to Table, it was all hands on deck, a kind of organized chaos. It was my first week, but I was tasked with helping clean, organize, and, of course, to distribute food – I got behind the wheel of a big transit van for the first time and delivered 1000 lbs of onions around Johnson County that had come from the first joint IGN gleaning event at a farm near Waterloo. It was a stinky but satisfying first mission.

My second week, I visited gleaning coordinator, Jessie, at Feed Iowa First in Cedar Rapids. The destruction in Cedar Rapids was like nothing I had ever personally experienced before – whole trees ripped from the ground, detours and caution tape everywhere, roofs and walls knocked down or just missing all together. A lot of people were outdoors cleaning, chatting, helping each other out, or just walking, as it was easier to get around on foot. I went back to Cedar Rapids the next day to join Feed Iowa First on one of their produce distributions at an apartment complex that had been hit hard by the storm. What I kept seeing– despite the destruction, the lack of power, the heat and humidity, and having to wear masks because we’re also in the middle of a pandemic– were people smiling and laughing, kids playing, people lending a hand to their neighbors; folks making the best out of an extreme situation and taking action to help each other out.

As my year with VISTA went on, I kept these observations present in my mind – that people want to help and laugh and be together. Through autumn and winter I researched gleaning, reached out to other gleaning organizations across the country, and designed and wrote a 20+ page manual on gleaning, spreadsheets to store gleaning data, and slideshows with instructions and information on gleaning, safety, and our mission. In all these resources I tried to instill a sense of what I had felt in my first weeks on the job – that gleaning could provide more than just food in bellies. Gleaning is community. Gleaning is helpful to so many:

farmers who didn’t want to see their hard work just get plowed under
folks who are going stir-crazy in their homes during the pandemic and want to get outside and have a nice activity
people on a fixed income or whose budget is already stretched thin and want to make something healthy for dinner
gardeners whose garden beds are more productive than they expected and need somewhere to take their extra produce
kids who have come along to a gleaning event and get their hands dirty learning how to harvest the food they eat

Gleaning excess fruits and vegetables to give away to those who want them should be the standard, not the exception. I did my best to take care of the Network and help it grow to its full potential. At the end of the first season, 2020, we had gathered just under 25,000 pounds of produce with 3 IGN Gleaning Coordinators who were hired halfway through the growing season. After their service was over we came to the conclusion that the gleaning programs needed resources, not only the resource and instruction material I was writing, but also physical equipment to get their jobs done more effectively. I wrote a list of supplies each program would need for the upcoming season, priced everything out, and applied for and received a grant to purchase everything our programs needed for success. A highlight of my VISTA service was when I assembled all the gleaning kits and personally drove them to each of the 7 gleaning program host sites across Iowa. I happily drove my thousand mile cross-Iowa road trip and got to meet each coordinator.

I was especially pleased to meet Corinne Sills, the coordinator in Mason City, who is the only coordinator to return for a second year with IGN. Our discussions focused on the idea that gleaning is a community taking care of itself, sharing the abundance that springs forth from labor, and of people giving what they can and taking what they need –mutual aid, not charity. It’s clear that this message is shared by many in our state. In only our second year the network collected more than 70,000 pounds of fresh produce. Seventy thousand pounds of nutritious food that might have been left in the field and has now made its way to Iowan tables.

I hope that through my work as the Program Development Coordinator I have set the Iowa Gleaning Network on a good path toward long-term sustainability and many years of service to come. Gleaning may not be common in our culture, but it is simple. Gleaning is people coming together from various walks of life to gather what they can, save what’s worth saving, and to help each other out. It is mutually beneficial to all involved, and it is a sign of a healthy and vibrant community that can take care of itself and grow stronger in doing so. Gleaning is giving. I know no gleaner who doesn’t want to share.

Farewell and Happy Trails, Emily!

Table to Table/News, Team News /staff /

October 30, 2021

After 5 years with Table to Table, Food Rescue Program Manager Emily Meister has accepted an exciting new opportunity as Eastern Iowa Regional Director of the National Farm Worker Program with Proteus. Proteus provides support services and medical care to migrant farm workers.

Emily originally joined the T2T team as a food rescue route volunteer in 2015 and transitioned from part-time staff to Food Rescue Program Manager in 2017. She’s brought her compassionate manner and dedication to eliminating food waste to each of her roles at T2T.

With Emily at the helm of route logistics and donor/client relations, we’ve increased food distribution from 1.8 million pounds of food to 2.4 million pounds each year. She has increased our number of regular food rescue routes by 25% and led several new initiatives that contribute to this incredible growth. These initiatives include expanding food sourcing opportunities to include the entire life cycle of food, from harvesting directly from farms and gardens to building relationships with food transport drivers who pass by Iowa City regularly and recovering food directly from food processors.

In her time at T2T, Emily has seized every opportunity to improve services and expand access to food throughout Johnson County. With these experiences under her belt, she’s going to be a great asset to Proteus and we wish her the best!

Join us for a farewell gathering at Big Grove on Wednesday, November 10th from 4pm to 6pm.

We are now accepting applications for the Program Manager role. Read more about the role and the qualities of the candidate we’re looking for here.

Welcome New Gleaning Coordinator Nora Garda

Anne Langebartels/News, Team News /AmeriCorps /

May 6, 2021

We’re excited to introduce you to our new Local Gleaning Coordinator, Nora Garda.

Nora grew up in Argentina and has many fond memories of her childhood there. One of her earliest food memories is that of the smell of her grandmother’s polenta, made with warm milk and cheese, wafting through the house when Nora returned from school. To reduce food waste and make the most of limited resources, Nora’s family shopped at the market daily and prepared meals with fresh ingredients. These memories have impacted Nora and fueled a life-long appreciation for fresh foods and a desire to combat food waste.

Nora completed her undergraduate degree, a BS in analytical chemistry and a BA in dance, in Argentina. After getting her undergraduate degree Nora moved to the United States and earned a Masters in Analytical Chemistry from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Eventually, she found her way to Iowa City where she recently retired after 28 years working as a Senior Chemist testing the efficacy and stability of new compounds for pharmaceutical companies. However, if you recognize Nora, it’s most likely not because of her career as a chemist but because of her community involvement stemming from her love of dance. While she’s classically trained in ballet, Nora’s true passion is modern dance, and she has spearheaded numerous community projects related to dance.

Nora will be serving for 9 months as an AmeriCorps member with Table to Table’s gleaning program. Nora is eager to lead harvests this summer so that she can provide people with fresh produce like she remembers having access to as a young girl. As she says, “I strongly believe in not wasting food. Fresh produce is nutritious and yummy! Why let it go bad in the fields when so many can benefit from it?”

We love Nora’s enthusiasm and energy and look forward to her applying her passion for fresh produce to our gleaning program. On a personal note, I am hoping that she is willing to share grandma’s polenta recipe!

Introduction written by Jared Long