Reflections on Two Summers of Gleaning Across Iowa
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!
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.
2021 Letter from the Director: Challenges met with collaboration and creativity
This letter from Executive Director Nicki Ross appeared in Table to Table’s Impact Report for fiscal year 2021.
When I think of this past year and the challenges it presented, I keep coming back to an overwhelming sense of gratitude; gratitude to you, the staff, volunteers, and each of our partners. It’s also difficult to summarize a year that feels like a decade, but I’m going to try. 
We have learned a lot in our 25 years of operation, yet this year highlighted the challenges we face in fighting food insecurity. Most notably, how the inequalities in our food system are underpinned by structural racism and social inequality. It is a stark reminder that this crisis existed long before the pandemic and that food waste is inextricably linked to equity. As you’ll read in this report, in partnership with the incredible hunger relief network, we found even more ways to reclaim resources and increase food access.
Partnerships are the foundation that enable us to act quickly, expand, and diversify the ways we meet the changing needs of our community. We found new sources for our most requested foods and delivered more of these resources to the agencies that are on the front lines of a once-in-a-generation national hunger crisis. In a year when food was scarce and the need was greater than ever, Johnson County food pantries distributed more pounds of food per person than in the previous two years.
Our community understood that the first priority during a crisis is to make sure people are fed. Our daily work was made to do exactly this, feed our neighbors. To do this, we lean heavily on the collective power of people. You fueled our response – you are why, despite continued uncertainty, we’re in a position to serve our community for the months and years ahead.
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 Ross
Executive Director
Read our full Impact Report for fiscal year 2021
Volunteer Spotlight: Vicki Jaeger shares her advice for rescuing food
If you’re having a conversation with Vicki Jaeger, you never know what you may end up talking about. We count on her to share intriguing facts, TV shows to watch, and fun stories when she comes in to volunteer. We also know we can count on her to carry out her regular Saturday morning food rescue route with mastery and dedication. (She shares a little bit of her advice for rescuing food below!)
Vicki is in her sixth year volunteering at Table to Table; she started volunteering with us when she was looking for a way to get involved in our community and her Google search results suggested T2T. She’s been here week after week rescuing thousands of pounds of food ever since.
During the first year of the pandemic, we asked Saturday morning volunteers to take on each of their food rescue routes solo and without T2T staff onsite in order to accommodate resource demands due to the virus. Vicki, along with other regular Saturday morning volunteers, wasn’t deterred. The mighty band of Saturday volunteers carried on with their routes solo and took care of prepping their vans for Monday’s routes, too.
In addition to her food rescue route, Vicki serves on our Resource Development Committee and has a real knack for organizing and analyzing data – she’s an Excel wizard! We are very thankful for Vicki’s continued commitment to our mission and her excitement in engaging with our community.
Are you a new T2T volunteer? Vicki’s got some advice!
What is one thing you would tell new T2T volunteers when they’re first starting out?
Packing a box [of food] is like playing Tetris. Also, try to put “like” items with “like.”
What do you wish other people knew about Table to Table, food insecurity, and/or food waste?
- “Best by” dates are not expiration dates. Food doesn’t magically go bad as of that date. [Read more about “best by” dates here.]
- Just because food isn’t pretty (bruised produce), doesn’t mean it’s not good. [Read about food waste 101 here.]
- Food insecurity, especially for children, is a lot more prevalent than we like to think. [In Johnson County, childhood food insecurity affects 1 in 5 kids.]
Fun Facts about Vicki
What are your hobbies?
Reading, movies and TV, and traveling to the 50 states with my sister
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?
Ireland and the United Kingdom
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Can’t go wrong with chocolate ice cream.
Meet Mary Palmberg, the ultimate food rescue ambassador
Mary Palmberg is someone you might call a “local legend.” Many people in our community have the privilege of knowing Mary, with her energy and enthusiasm to tackle any goal and to, as she puts it, “make the most of her days.” She has worked in the University of Iowa’s Provost Office, has hosted the Helpers Email list connecting 250 volunteers with community needs, and was the Director and Volunteer Coordinator for the Free Lunch Program until 2014, helping secure its current space in the 1105 Project. She’s also been a volunteer at Table to Table since 1998, making her one of our longest-serving volunteers. 
Mary’s service with T2T is remarkable for many reasons. Here are a few:
- She can rescue any amount of food: a few weeks ago she and her volunteer partner rescued 1900 lbs. of food on one route alone!
- We have yet to discover her limit on how many volunteer shifts she can fill in a week: so far this year, she’s clocked more than 100 shifts on food rescue routes, prepping vehicles in the shop, picking up food at the Iowa City Farmers’ Market, and distributing veggies at produce pop-ups.
- She is the ultimate food rescue ambassador. She builds great relationships with food donors, increasing their donations and commitment to the mission. She makes T2T deliveries memorable for recipient agencies and their volunteers by delivering food with the best attitude and expressing sincere and heartfelt gratitude for their partnership and work. And she not only volunteers herself, but she brings along countless new volunteers. She uses every opportunity to promote and garner support for the mission. She truly couldn’t do more to be a better ambassador.
Mary has kept Table to Table moving forward all these 23 years she’s been involved, certainly not least of all this last year with all of its changes and unpredictability. Her knowledge and experience in hunger relief efforts combined with her passion for serving our neighbors makes her irreplaceable at Table to Table. Mary is a true example of the impact one person can have on changing a community for the better.
Get to know Mary
How long have you been volunteering with Table to Table? “Since the day I retired from the University of Iowa: February 13, 1998 (and maybe even before that).”
What’s one of your favorite memories from your time volunteering with Table to Table? “I have SO MANY favorite memories … but a unique one was doing a route in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.”
What is one thing you would tell new T2T volunteers when they’re first starting out? “To be very friendly, appreciative, and helpful to the people at [food] donor sites.”
What do you wish other people knew about Table to Table, food insecurity, and food waste? “Table to Table makes staff at [food] donor sites feel very good about their products not going to waste. T2T makes a huge difference in the budgets and food offerings of its recipient partners.” [She’s right! The food T2T delivers would cost partners hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase. And T2T-rescued food accounts for 60% of the food most pantries in Johnson County distribute.]
What is one of your favorite food memories? “Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzards made with chocolate DQ—shared with my T2T partner Nancy Weber after most of our Tuesday morning T2T routes during the Riverside Drive Dairy Queen’s season.”
One thing that would surprise someone to learn about me is… “I biked from ocean-to-ocean across the U.S. twice (in 2000, Virginia to Oregon; and in 2003, California to Florida), and the length of the Mississippi River twice (in 1999 south from St. Paul to New Orleans; and in 2007 from New Orleans to Lake Itasca) on trips with small groups of cyclists.”
