Recently, we spent some time asking “Why do you volunteer?”
![Picture of Jon Feaver T2T volunteer for 7 years, quote: “I can’t save the world but rescuing food is something tangible I can do to help that makes a big impact across the community.” Picture of Jim and Laurie Cubit T2T volunteers for 3 years, quote: “With Table to Table you know the food you’re rescuing is going to make it into homes within a matter of hours. Being able to make a difference that quickly is a wonderful thing.” Picture of Dina Janzen T2T volunteer for 17 years, quote: “[As a big truck volunteer] I get to move 10,000 pounds of food at a time! I can’t believe how I’ve watched this organization grow. I have loved every volunteer I’ve ever come into contact with and the staff are amazing. It’s just a really good feeling.”](https://table2table.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/FY25-Spring-Appeal-Menu-11-x-17-in-1-207x300.png)
volunteers
Volunteers are the key to vital connections
This article appears in Table to Table’s 2023 Impact Report.
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.
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 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.
Remembering Our Friend and Fellow Food Rescuer Kenn Bowen
It is with heavy hearts that we honor the life and legacy of a remarkable individual, Kenn Bowen, who dedicated himself to serving his community as a Veteran for Peace, advocate for immigrant rights, and as a food rescue volunteer with Table to Table. Alongside his beloved wife, Pat, Kenn selflessly stepped forward during a time of great volunteer need, leaving an indelible mark on our organization and the lives of those he touched.
We’re thinking of Kenn and Pat this week as we get our produce stand schedule started for the summer. Kenn & Pat volunteered at our Free Produce stands during the summer months, building community and distributing fresh produce with a smile and a kind word. This was in addition to faithfully covering their weekly route. Together, Kenn and Pat were an unstoppable duo, always willing to lend a helping hand wherever it was needed.
At a gathering of T2T volunteers last summer at Big Grove, AmeriCorps member Alyssa remembers her first encounter with Kenn, who would become a regular volunteer in the program she led: “From the moment we struck up a conversation, it was clear that Kenn had a knack for storytelling and ‘dad’ jokes. He effortlessly embodied the welcoming and inclusive nature of Table to Table, making everyone around him feel at ease.”
Each time he saw Kenn, T2T Volunteer Coordinator Jared Long would share his own weekly joke, and it became a lighthearted goal to elicit an eye roll from Kenn — a small victory that Jared cherished. Kenn’s quick wit and dry humor reminded us not to take ourselves too seriously and added a touch of levity to our work. His clever quips, travel stories, and engaging discussions on current events made him an unforgettable presence.
Kenn never held back from sharing his thoughts and opinions, providing valuable insights and feedback. His honesty and engagement in our work were qualities that we greatly respected. We knew that when Kenn expressed his views, it came from a place of genuine care and a desire to make a difference. His candidness was appreciated in the environment of open dialogue and growth T2T works to cultivate.
We mourn the loss of a dear friend, a dedicated volunteer, and a man of integrity. But let us also celebrate the profound impact he had on our community. In honor of Kenn Bowen, let us carry his spirit forward. Let us continue the vital work he began, being a true friend, advocating and lifting the voices of our most vulnerable neighbors, and bringing comfort to those in need. May we approach our tasks with the same dedication, passion, and humor. His legacy of compassion and service lives on in our hearts and in the continued efforts of Table to Table.
Meet one of the original volunteers: Lynette Richards
What drew Lynette Richards to Table to Table? “The fact that food can be on people’s plates that same day.” Lynette volunteered rescuing food in the late 1990s and served on T2T’s Board of Directors until she moved away from Iowa City in the early 2000s. “It was one of the hardest things to leave behind,” she says.
Lynette’s Honda Passport was her food rescue mobile: “I’d fill it up, I’d give away all the food, then I’d finish picking up more food. Sometimes I would come back with nearly a ton in total.”
“I would go to Eagles Grocery, Blooming Prairie, Bruegger’s Bagels, New Pioneer Food Co-op, sometimes Hy-Vee, and sometimes the University food service. We would drop food off at United Action for Youth, Domestic Violence Intervention Program, preschool programs, and homeless shelters,” she remembers. T2T didn’t have any refrigerated storage at the time, so, “We had to find a place to deliver what we collected that day. We couldn’t bring anything back.” To this day we only have the equivalent of six household refrigerators of cold storage because we aim to get the food out as quickly as possible.
“At T2T you get food from a variety of places, so when you put it together, you can make a healthy meal. It’s very usable,” Lynette continues. “You get excited when you get one food donation because it goes with something else you got, and it will make a nice meal for somebody.”
Rajni Vijh takes on an array of volunteer roles
“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.
Stories from the Route
As we wrap up volunteer appreciation month, we can’t think of a better way to express our appreciation for our fantastic volunteers than by sharing stories from their T2T volunteer shifts in April. These stories illustrate volunteers’ resourcefulness, good humor, and enthusiasm to go above and beyond in the name of food rescue. We truly could not recover nearly 2.5 million pounds of food each year without them.
Just last weekend, volunteer Michelle Hills finished her regular food rescue route collecting a few hundred pounds of food. While she was out, another volunteer called in and couldn’t do their route. Michelle noticed when she got back from her regular route that nobody had recorded any donations for that route and offered to do that one too! Without her, we may have lost the opportunity to deliver more produce, meat, and a variety of other foods to Coralville Community Pantry that morning.
————————
Mary Palmberg and Nancy Weber picked up a huge haul at Walmart & Costco a couple of weeks ago. Mary says, “No surprise that we barely — and only due to our years of practice — fit all that frozen bakery and (heavy) frozen meat into the cooler section [of the van].” On top of that, they received lots of whole pineapples.
At the next stop, a couple of hundred pounds of charcoal briquettes! So, upon delivery, Mary made a deal: “We told Hải at the Coralville Pantry that she could have some of those nice pineapples if she took some charcoal briquettes…the number of pineapples dependent on the number of 20# bags of charcoal. She laughed — though she also took charcoal along with her pineapples.”
The good-natured flexibility of our partners to accept whatever crazy variety of food (and BBQ accouterments) that arrive on the truck is key to our success. “We were amazed that we’d passed off all the charcoal — and everything else — by the end of the route,” Mary says.
We’re impressed by the packing and sorting skills our veteran volunteers have. It’s an underrated talent that ensures no fruit is left behind!
————————–
On another of what Mary calls an “exciting & rewarding day on the road”, it was looking like a “light” food rescue day with two carts of grocery, meat, and bakery…until a very helpful and friendly store employee, Taveon, led the team back to a cooler with towers of cabbage and bananas. So many, it warranted a call back to base to see if T2T had the capacity. After getting the affirmative, they had to do their magic again to fit everything in the van. On their way out, Mary asked about a cart of miscellaneous items including toys and Easter baskets that weren’t for sale anymore, so they took those too! Hải Huỳnh, Coralville Pantry Community Projects Coordinator, shared with the volunteers that those extra toys and gifts they asked for would be put in birthday bags for kids.
Mary and Nancy made stops at North Liberty Pantry and HACAP Head Start and then an additional stop at Shelter House where they delivered a box of bananas and quite a few cabbages. The cook was excited about preparing the cabbages for dinner that evening.
T2T recipient partners and our volunteers are truly remarkable, and it’s clear that the admiration is mutual. Mary and Nancy return from their route celebrating their interactions with Hải: “What a super (& strong!) woman she is!” and, “She’s fantastic!”
————————–
Kenn & Pat Bowen, volunteers since this past September, shared photos of their beautiful haul from New Pioneer Coop. Fresh veggies and healthy prepared foods were a welcome and delightful delivery that day!
——————–
And finally, volunteer Charlotte Fairlie passed along an impactful message she received from a community member as she was picking up food at a stop on her route just a few days ago:
“A woman rolled down her window as she was pulling out of her parking space and said,
‘I just want to thank all of you for everything you are doing and all the work you put in. I have been in the position of having to use your services, and I want you to know how valuable it is and how much it’s appreciated.’”
As Charlotte says, “Her message is for all of us.”
Thank you, T2T #helpers
Many of our regular food rescue volunteers have stepped up to do more than ever before during the COVID-19 crisis, rescuing food on several routes per week and bringing their friends and families along to help. These individuals ensure that our program continues operating and ease onboarding the influx of new emergency volunteers with their experience and willingness to adapt. Several volunteers have also offered to be on call in case we need to fill a route or if a special mission comes up. Thanks to their efforts, we can establish a sense of familiarity with our restructured routes for both regular and new volunteers.
Our volunteers are truly our #helpers in time of great need.
Table to Table’s message across the globe
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.
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.”
