A local seventh-grader, Izzy Mooney, recently reached out to Table to Table about a research project she conducted to better understand how different nonprofits in the Iowa City area were responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Izzy eagerly took up this project initiated by her parents to keep her engaged and learning while out of school. She narrowed in on how several local organizations were addressing hunger relief and put together a report. After presenting her findings to her parents, she recommended the family make a donation to Table to Table to support our work during this crisis.
She was excited to share her research with us, and was surprised about how much we do to rescue food:
“I learned so much about food pantries…[I can’t believe] you can rescue six cans of food for $0.96.”
Since her dad works at Microsoft, her donation will be matched by Microsoft’s employee match outreach program in the mission of supporting nonprofits around the globe.
We want to thank Izzy and the Mooney family for demonstrating the importance of civic engagement, especially during times of crisis. Their donation will deliver nearly 2,000 pounds of food to our neighbors in need.
Recipes to the Rescue is a reimagining of our traditional annual dinner, an opportunity to come together and support Table to Table while staying at home. Our restaurant partners, who have graciously donated food for our annual dinner year after year, are instead offering their favorite recipes for you to try at home. Don’t miss out on this unique compilation of delicious recipes. You can order here.
While their dining rooms may be closed, several of our restaurant sponsors are still cooking! If you’ve been jonesing for a hot pizza pie from Pagliai’s or maybe your favorite BBQ sandwich from Mosley’s, these and several other restaurant partners are open and would be happy to whip something up for you. Check out their info below and visit their websites for current hours. Order take out now and then join us in a couple of weeks to try your hand at recipes from home.
Big Grove Brewery
We’re thankful that Big Grove has multiple locations, in Solon and Iowa City, because everybody should be able to savor their brews, tasty meals and cookies right now. Usher in the warm weather with a cool Summer Jam. Ahh…
Soups, sandwiches, salads just taste better when you let NoDo make it for you. If you ask our program manager Emily, she would eat a bowl full of the haba-aoli – so you should definitely try that!
We’ve collected 70,000 pounds of food so far in April.
Jill, a staff member from Aero Rental and Party Shoppe, joins us multiple times a week to sanitize and do last minute food rescue.
We want to express our gratitude for the incredible community response during this time of need. After restarting our operation on March 26, through the week of April 3 we successfully rescued more than 36,000 pounds of food, and during the week of April 6 we rescued 34,000 pounds. This is 80% of what we normally rescue in a week, a tremendous accomplishment given that we rescued this food in fewer than half the number of regular food rescue routes. This has been made possible thanks to numerous new volunteer applications and the support of local organizations and businesses.
We’ve onboarded many new community volunteers. City, County, and local business volunteers have helped see us through the most challenging weeks of food rescue in recent memory.
The City of Iowa City Housing Inspection Department dedicated two staff to routes each weekday.
Johnson County SEATS drivers are on call to fill in on routes if we are unable at the last minute to fill a shift.
Aero Rental and Party Shoppe is keeping four of their staff employed by lending them to us as food rescue and facility volunteers.
Bur Oak Land Trust has loaned two AmeriCorps members each day for food rescue routes until at least the end of April.
Bur Oak AmeriCorps members get ready for one of their first routes.
We want to thank all of you for adapting with us as we respond to the ever-changing world crisis right here in our community. Your outreach and support through this time are ensuring Table to Table runs full steam ahead and keeps our neighbors fed.
In addition to our regular food rescue operation, Table to Table has joined a partnership to assist with Food with Love, a community initiative to provide meals for area hunger relief organizations while supporting local restaurants and their staff. Food with Love ensures relief organizations such as Shelter House, The Salvation Army, and Domestic Violence Intervention Program can continue providing hot meals.
The program currently serves the community Tuesday through Friday. Table to Table provides lunch deliveries and CommonTable covers dinner deliveries. Restaurant partners DeLuxe Cakes & Pastries, Big Grove Brewery, Pullman Bar & Diner, and St. Burch Tavern have been quick to respond to feedback for ease of no-contact pickups and labeling meals so recipient locations can efficiently receive the food they need and drivers do not need to enter any of the sites.
At the beginning of March, Table to Table experienced a volunteer shortage unlike any we’ve ever had. As you’re probably aware, routes are supported almost entirely by volunteers who serve 2-3 hours each week for more than 50 food rescue deliveries. You may not know that T2T also relied heavily on volunteers for a variety of other important operational tasks including preparing vehicles for routes, maintaining and sanitizing the facility, entering and analyzing food rescue data, tracking our fleet maintenance and billing, and more. Without those volunteers, many of those tasks beyond sanitation and preparing for routes ground to a halt.
Lucky for us, AmeriCorps members whose roles have been suspended with other projects reached out to us looking for volunteer opportunities. Reading Corps AmeriCorps member, Andrew, and Green Iowa AmeriCorps member, Nick, have joined us nearly full time to support Table to Table operations.
Nick Simone
Nick is a logistics coordinator for Green Iowa AmeriCorps Energy & Community program where he conducted residential energy audits in Iowa City. Energy audits help homeowners identify sources of air leakage and energy inefficiencies within their home. Fixing these issues saves money and energy while also increasing the healthiness of a home. Nick graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a BBA in Marketing and a Certificate of Sustainability.
With a background in sustainability, Nick has been an excellent addition to the team and has taken on daily program coordination tasks in addition to coordinating food rescue data. Tracking this data in a timely and accurate manner helps ensure we know what food is coming in and that each organization is getting what they need.
In just under a week, it’s clear Nick is already dedicated to the T2T mission,
“I didn’t realize how much food Table to Table is able to redistribute to people in need. Being an advocate of sustainability, it makes me happy to see food that would otherwise be thrown away being used for its purpose, eating.”
Andrew Winkers
Andrew is part of the AmeriCorps ReadingCorps team with the Iowa City School District. The ReadingCorps program serves K-3rd grade students who are on the border between at risk and proficient in reading. They utilize several interventions that range from practicing letter sounds to reading one-page stories as “newscasters” to encourage conversational reading and improve overall comprehension skills. Andrew graduated with a BA in English and a certificate in writing from the University of Iowa and its Magid Center in 2019.
Andrew joined us at the beginning of April to help coordinate our work with the Food with Love project, help with daily program coordination, and to write blog posts and e-news articles about our work during this crisis.
Andrew has found being a part of the Table to Table team has been awe-inspiring and a jovial atmosphere,
“I am in awe of the quantity of food that Table to Table is able to rescue and redistribute in Johnson county. I enjoy the camaraderie among the volunteers and staff and the overall positivity that is cultivated through this organization.”
Ellie Paxson
Ellie is currently an AmeriCorps member with Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity. She is working with Table to Table during this time as a way to support the vital social services in our community. She’s a whiz at data entry and is helping recruit and record new volunteers as well as process financial donations.
Ellie graduated from the University of Iowa in May of 2019 with a BS in Psychology and a minor in Human Relations.
She is excited to get the chance to work for another non-profit in Iowa City. She says,
“This community is so supportive and involved, especially during times of crisis.”
Yusef Abuissa
Yusef is serving in the Energy and Community branch of the Green Iowa AmeriCorps. His job is to be knowledgeable in home science and lead home energy audits/weatherizations. He conducts safety tests and air leak tests to measure how much air leaks into a home before letting homeowners know how leaky their home is, and he recommends air sealing processes.
As an undergrad at the University of Iowa, Yusef recently swapped majors from Biology to Environmental Policy and Planning and plans to go back to school after finishing his year of service with AmeriCorps.
As a recent addition to Table to Table, Yusef’s dedication to rescuing food is inspiring, and he illustrates a common awe in his first reactions to our program’s operation,
“What I enjoy most is the satisfaction of supporting an organization that does something incredible. The food waste built into our society is immensely off-putting to me, and the fact that it can then go to help people and families who can’t afford food while maintaining their dignity puts a smile on my face.”
Table to Table rescues and delivers half the food distributed to hungry people in Johnson County.
We are requesting financial donations and seeking temporary volunteers not in high-risk groups for Covid-19 to continue our local food rescue operations. As of Monday, March 23, we have temporarily paused operations for the first time in 24 years to restructure and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. We must adjust to account for a temporary critical reduction in volunteers that transport the food to agencies throughout Johnson County that feed the hungry. We plan to re-initiate food rescue operations on Thursday, March 26, 2020.
As a volunteer-based operation, we are experiencing a critical shortage of volunteers, which contribute the hours that would otherwise have to be done by nine full-time staff. This current crisis has hit our volunteer force hard. On Friday, March 20, volunteers at high risk for hospitalization or death as a result of Covid-19 infection were asked to temporarily suspend their volunteer service. Due to the vast majority of our volunteers being older individuals and college students, 80% of our volunteers are no longer available to transport food to the hungry in Johnson County.
Our volunteers collect and redistribute 40,000 pounds of food each week, and this food is needed now more than ever. The food insecurity landscape in Johnson County is changing rapidly, with neighbors needing access to basic necessities as they experience unpaid time off or closures of other social services. As our partner organizations’ resources become scarce and the need continues to grow, they will need these 40,000 pounds of food per week more than ever.
We need community support to bring operations back up to full capacity. Financial donations are critical at this time, as we will likely need to hire a temporary staff driver to make up for the significant volunteer force deficit. To donate, please visit www.table2table.org/donateonline.
Community members who do not fall into high-risk groups for Covid-19, have not traveled recently or come into contact with individuals infected with the virus, and who are feeling well and Covid-19 symptom-free are encouraged to lend a hand with food rescue route volunteering. To volunteer, contact us at volunteer@table2table.org or call (319) 337-3400.
Table to Table is continuing to rescue food with additional safety precautions in place. Table to Table delivers more than 40,000 pounds of food each week to thousands of people who need it. Our mission to feed our most vulnerable neighbors is especially critical right now — people will need access to basic necessities more than ever if they experience unpaid time off or closures of other social services.
We are working to continue our operations to the best of our ability, and the safety and well-being of our recipients, volunteers, food donors and staff is our top priority. We are reducing and restructuring routes to limit contact between people as much as possible, increasing the frequency of our cleaning and disinfecting procedures, and requiring volunteers/staff to stay home if they are not feeling well.
More than half of our regular volunteers are at high risk for complications from COVID-19 or have a close family member who is vulnerable. They must temporarily suspend their volunteer duties for their safety or the safety of their family.
While we have reduced the number of daily food rescue routes, we will still need additional volunteers in order to continue operations. Any individual who is well and not at high risk for this illness who is interested in providing volunteer support, please email volunteer@table2table.org or call 319-337-3400. We need help boxing and loading food from grocery stores and transporting food to local food pantries and shelters. Table to Table vehicles are provided. Food rescue routes run 8 a.m.-noon Monday-Saturday, and typically take 2-3 hours. Please also consider making a financial donation to help us pay for fuel, vehicle maintenance and staffing needed to continue our operation. Go to https://table2table.org/donateonline/
We are closely monitoring recommendations by the CDC and Iowa Department of Public Health and will continue making adjustments to our services and operations as needed. Thank for supporting hunger relief in Johnson County. Working together is a cornerstone of our mission, we trust we will get through this crisis by continuing to do just that.
For the past several summers, Table to Table has hosted volunteers from the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a program of the Young African Leaders Initiative providing outstanding young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa opportunities for professional development at US universities. Jean Pierre Sibomana was one such Fellow who volunteered with Table to Table during his visit to the University of Iowa. He was so inspired by what he learned about food rescue and distribution, he decided to bring the idea to his own community.
At home in Rwanda, Jean Pierre serves at an NGO called Self-Advocacy Initiatives for People with Disabilities (S.A.I.D.), which he founded in 2014. The organization serves and supports vulnerable children with disabilities from low-income families. “These families are stigmatized and isolated because of having children born with disabilities, and our goal is to help to reduce these cultural practices and empower these families, financially and economically, to advocate for themselves,” Jean Pierre says. “We are aware that when a family is empowered, they can…give educational rights to their children with disabilities.”
Families that S.A.I.D. serves are lacking basic health support, proper food, and treatment for their health conditions. Jean Pierre has taken what he learned at Table to Table and developed a program called Smile Plate Project, which will help “families with children who have severe disabilities and other groups of people that are lacking basic needs, including food and house materials that are essential,” he says. The Smile Plate Project will work closely with local grocery stores and other partners, and hopes to start by providing food and other household items, especially relating to children’s needs. Smile Plate will be focusing on remote areas of a low resources community, and volunteers from S.A.I.D. will collect and distribute food to these people “in the collaboration of caring people who really understand the issue,” Jean Pierre says.
Jean Pierre Sibomana at the University of Iowa
The Smile Plate Project will “help to show love to those who have been isolated and lost hope of the future resulting from their disabilities,” he adds. “[It will] help to empower and share the culture of sharing.”
Spending time in Iowa during his time in the Mandela Washington Fellowship program, Jean Pierre says, empowered him “to think deeply and expand my community involvement in supporting vulnerable groups of people born with mental disabilities and other groups of people that are left behind in the community.” He was fascinated with the programs he witnessed in Iowa that target vulnerable populations in the community, including Table to Table.
“We will always work as volunteers until our community mindset changes,” Jean Pierre says, “[until] all children hidden in houses are known and given their rights and free education, food, clothing, and medication…[until these families] will no longer be ashamed and be empowered economically and financially.”
Part of Table to Table’s mission is to mitigate the environmental impacts resulting in climate change. We do this in two ways: 1) preventing greenhouse gas emissions by diverting organics from the landfill and 2) ensuring food that has already expended natural resources and contributed to greenhouse gas emissions is actually utilized. According to the most recent report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global food system from land use to food production and transportation is responsible for as much as 37% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
A spring 2019 post-grad environmental impact study for Table to Table looked at two questions. First, how much CO2 would the rescued food produce if it had been sent directly to the landfill? “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,” the study finds.
Second, what resources did it take to produce and transport the food Table to Table was able to reclaim for use? While these resources haven’t been “conserved” by our work because these resources were spent regardless of our involvement, “T2T’s operations help ensure that more food goes towards feeding people so that these resource inputs are not ‘wasted’.”
Iowa City Climate Strike
On Friday, October 4, intern Cassidy Beamer represented Table to Table at the student-led Iowa City Climate Strike in downtown Iowa City. Cassidy reports:
Friday’s climate strike was one of many that have taken place in Iowa City and all over the world for several weeks now, but this particular strike drew quite the crowd due to an appearance made by global climate activist Greta Thunberg. Greta is a sixteen year old climate activist who started the global climate strike movement called Fridays For Future in August of 2018. After arriving to the U.S. by sailboat and driving across the country in her Tesla, Greta attended her 59th climate strike right here in Iowa City.
It was an absolute honor to stand before this young activist and hear her speak about the hope she has for this planet. It was also an honor to stand among thousands of Iowa City residents who share a desire to tackle the issue of climate change through responsible actions and advocacy.
I attended the strike wearing my Table to Table beanie and t-shirt to represent Table to Table’s role in mitigating climate change through food rescue. I left the strike feeling grateful for my involvement with this wonderful nonprofit and eager to enact more positive change.
The impact of our grant from Frontier Co-op to purchase a new refrigerated vehicle and one year lease on our refrigerated “big truck” can be best illustrated by the “Great Yogurt Boon of 2017”. On a Wednesday in mid-September we received a call that a local food warehouse had 8 pallets, nearly 9000 pounds of yogurt to donate. Nine thousand pounds of yogurt and the expiration was more than a month away! What a windfall! In fact, dairy is one of the most needed items for agencies serving the hungry in our community.
However, 4 tons of dairy that needs to be refrigerated presents its own challenges. Since no single partner agency can store or redistribute food in those quantities, we needed a storage and distribution plan. With our two new vehicles, we were able to accommodate this challenge with little difficulty. Our new 22ft refrigerated had the capacity to transport and keep cool all 8 pallets. We were able to use the truck as a temporary warehouse and work over the course of several hours to distribute this high value food to more than 15 local programs.
Even so, at the end of the day, we still had 800 pounds of yogurt remaining, which was not likely to fit in the 7 household sized refrigerators we have back at Table to Table. So, we transferred the remaining yogurt to the new transit van we purchased with the help of Frontier Co-op. We can actually plug this new vehicle’s refrigeration system into a wall outlet, thereby expanding our refrigerated warehouse space to 350 cubic feet. By storing the yogurt for the next 36 hours, we were able to find additional recipients in need of dairy. Local after school programs received more than 50 cases to serve as snacks and small pantries with minimal storage capacity received a second delivery after distributing the first load of yogurt early in the week.
These organizations served around 3,000 individuals with this single delivery. Without these new vehicles, this nutritious and high need food would have either gone to waste or been diverted away from those in need right here in our community. Thank you to Frontier for helping keep good food from going to waste and feeding 19,500 hungry people.
