Organizations collaborating to address food insecurity
T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Gary Fulton with the Emergency Food Box gives gift cards to Fareway and HyVee to agencies operating little food pantries in Marshall County. The gift cards will be used to fill the pantries with groceries. Accepting the gift cards were Deb Cornwell from Green Mountain, Sandy Bennett with Hope United Methodist Church, Tim Welton from Haverhill and Nadine Fogt with Iowa State University Extension.
Organizations working hard to address the increasing problem of food insecurity in Marshalltown and throughout Marshall County are forming a network.
Many of the organizations, such as MICA, YSS, the Emergency Food Box and Iowa State University Extension office manage little food pantries in the county. To date, there are 16 in Marshall County, including seven in Marshalltown which are open to the public. There are additional pantries in Marshalltown not open to the public, but cater to the clients using the organizations, such as the pantry at YSS.
On Wednesday, representatives of the organizations met at the Extension office to discuss further collaboration.
During introductions, Gary Fulton with the Emergency Food Box in Marshalltown said the nonprofit has a high turnover rate of food, with almost all of it out the door within two weeks.
“This year, we’ve seen a great increase in numbers,” he said.
Community Foundation of Marshall County Executive Director Julie Hitchins, Jan Keller with Hope United Methodist Church, Gary Fulton with the Emergency Food Box and Sandy Bennett with Hope United participate in a discussion on improving collaboration between organizations managing little food pantries. The meeting was held Wednesday at the Marshall County Extension office.
Fulton passed some recent statistics on the number of people served at the Food Box this year, compared to 2022. Just in August, the Food Box served 93 new families for a total of 437 families and 1,522 individuals per month. That is higher than the average amount of 347 families and 1,200 individuals per month from January through July.
From January to July 2022, the food pantry averaged 231 families and 750 people per month.
Fulton also handed out some gift cards to entities operating little pantries outside of Marshalltown.
Courtney Long, Extension program assistant research associate, led the meeting and wanted to hear about successes of the pantries and challenges faced during the summer. She said she heard others say during introductions that the pantries were running out of food.
Community Foundation of Marshall County Executive Director Julie Hitchins said the biggest challenge is the cost of food.
“It’s just going to the grocery store and shopping for it,” she said. “I think we all experience it when we go buy our own groceries, just the average increased cost of groceries. The other thing I noticed, but HyVee and Fareway are much more expensive than Aldi. I know they’re local and I know they support.”
Sandy Bennett with Hope United Methodist Church, said the nice thing about HyVee is they will allow her to buy cases of groceries at a cost of 99 cents per item.
“If you’re able to do that, or pay attention to the ads, HyVee is really good about allowing you to do that,” she said. “If you want to go and ask the service desk, they will allow you to buy a case. Take it and fill [the little food pantry].”
Marshall County Extension Director Amy Pieper said she would like to get grocery store managers involved in future discussions.
“At least conversing with them about gift cards and getting them to know the need,” she said. “Now we just need to get them to the table so they hear even more. If the manager knows 99 cent cereal is coming up, they don’t have to give it to us, but we do have support to purchase those items.”
To help with communication between the entities, a private Facebook page called Feed Marshall County Iowa and an email Listserv will be created to allow improved networking. The network will make it easier to share food sales, excess of groceries at one pantry and work on bigger projects.
MARSHALL COUNTY LITTLE FOOD PANTRIES:
Marshalltown:
Marshall County Extension, 2608 S. Second St.
Hope United Methodist Church, 2203 S. Third Ave.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 201 E. Church St.
Ninth and Summit, 211 N. Ninth St.
First United Church of Christ, 202 S. Fourth Ave.
Elim Lutheran Church, 302 W. Church St.
Grace Church, 311 S. Sixth St.
Melbourne:
New Horizons Methodist Church, 224 Main St.
Community Center, 613 Main St.
Other locations:
Albion Library, 400 N. Main St., Albion
Ferguson Bible Church, 395 Second St., Ferguson
Gilman Library, 106 N. Main St., Gilman
Memorial Park, 105 Main St., Haverhill
Little League Field, 502 W. Julien St., Le Grand
South of City Hall, 201 Main St., Liscomb
St. Paul Lutheran Church, 605 First St. N, State Center
Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.
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- T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Gary Fulton with the Emergency Food Box gives gift cards to Fareway and HyVee to agencies operating little food pantries in Marshall County. The gift cards will be used to fill the pantries with groceries. Accepting the gift cards were Deb Cornwell from Green Mountain, Sandy Bennett with Hope United Methodist Church, Tim Welton from Haverhill and Nadine Fogt with Iowa State University Extension.
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- Community Foundation of Marshall County Executive Director Julie Hitchins, Jan Keller with Hope United Methodist Church, Gary Fulton with the Emergency Food Box and Sandy Bennett with Hope United participate in a discussion on improving collaboration between organizations managing little food pantries. The meeting was held Wednesday at the Marshall County Extension office.
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