25-Year Impact Report

“This has given me a look into how much food is being rescued and how much the need is,” says Rajni Vijh, a current T2T volunteer. Rajni began volunteering in September 2020 on a food rescue route. “We got 3,000 pounds of food,” she remembers about her very first day. “I remember telling everybody, ‘This is my first time and we have saved so much food from being wasted.’ We were just packed to the brim!”

When an injury kept Rajni from food rescue on routes, she wanted to know other ways she could help. She’s taken on an array of roles. She prepares the fleet for routes and keeps a food-safe environment in the warehouse. She takes on data entry and office tasks.

In addition, she joined the software committee to help advise on procuring new software to track volunteers, donations, and route schedules. She adds, “All my life I’ve been in IT, so that’s close to my heart.”

Next she wants to learn more about gleaning in farm fields. “I’m a ‘whole picture’ person,” she says of helping in so many areas. So, she also recently joined the Board of Directors.

“In general, my nature is to help. This fits right into my mission: help where the need is,” she continues. “I’m really passionate about what I do here. I think everybody believes in the cause.”

Photo (above): Rajni did get in on a few gleans before the harvest season was over! She poses here with Nora, T2T gleaning coordinator, and their freshly-harvested squash at Trowel & Error Farm in Iowa City.

“My AmeriCorps experience helped me broaden my awareness of the multitude of resources present and those still needed in our community,” says Andrew Winkers, who served part of his AmeriCorps service term with T2T when his service in Iowa City Community Schools was interrupted by the pandemic. Andrew was the first AmeriCorps service member to join the T2T team in 2020 and opened the door to an invaluable resource. In the past three years, AmeriCorps members have supported food rescue operations, implemented a new software system, trained volunteers in safety and equity, expanded access to fresh, local produce, and more!

Andrew was impacted by “seeing how far reaching Table to Table’s food rescue activism connects and sustains the community by making resources available that would otherwise go to waste.” Andrew adds, “And the importance of seeking connections to build a community that cares.”

“There’s so many ways we work together that I truly don’t think we would function without this partnership,” says CommUnity [formerly The Crisis Center of Johnson County] Manager Krystal Kabela.

CommUnity provides groceries for 700-900 local households weekly. What does Table to Table’s partnership mean for CommUnity, in one word? Krystal and CommUnity Warehouse Coordinator Matt Himschoot respond in unison: “Food!” CommUnity is the biggest food distribution organization in Johnson County, and, “Table to Table provides a large amount of our fresh ready-to-eat meals, produce, and bread,” says Matt.

Half of the food CommUnity distributes in our county comes through T2T. “We wouldn’t operate on the same scale without Table to Table, nor as ‘cheaply,’” Krystal says. Food recovered from retail can be a huge resource for food pantries, but it takes a lot of logistics and resources to collect it each day, and then a different set of resources to distribute it to our neighbors. That’s why T2T was founded with partners like CommUnity in mind, and our partnerships are critical, so each organization can focus on what they do best.

Each year, CommUnity connects more than a million pounds of T2T’s rescued food to our neighbors. They do that through a combination of a groceryshopping-model food pantry, home delivery from their food bank, and a mobile pantry that hosts distribution events in 11 neighborhoods in Johnson County.

We continue to find ways to collaborate. After T2T added a 22-ft. truck to our food rescue fleet, T2T volunteers began to pick up CommUnity’s weekly food orders from the food reservoir in Hiawatha. “It’s not as easy to make that happen without T2T’s partnership,” says Krystal.

“T2T has come to CommUnity’s aid on more than one occasion. They were absolute lifesavers when the derecho hit and took out the power. Without their refrigerated truck, we would have lost thousands of pounds of food from our coolers and freezers,” Director of Development Julia Winter remembers.

Last year in preparation for CommUnity’s annual Project Holiday, which delivers holiday meals to 1,500 local families, arrangements for a large truck to pick up frozen meat fell through at the last minute. Matt called T2T, somewhat in a state of desperation. T2T staff said: “No problem; come get the truck.”

“Had that not been available to us, we would have been in trouble. Project Holiday may not have existed in the manner that it did,” Krystal says.

This summer, the food rescue work at T2T has outpaced our current vehicle resources, so CommUnity has shared their van with us so we don’t miss any opportunity.

As Julia concludes, “We are so grateful to share walls and a mission with T2T! Our neighboring spaces are mutually beneficial and ensure we’re able to get food to the people who need it most. Our partnership is closer than ever and we’re excited to see where the future takes us.”