T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Marshalltown Emergency Food Box representative Gary Fulton listens to co-chair Cindy Staron speak about the course of action to get food to children during the summer months. The food box will receive shipments twice a month to help provide for 1,300 children in June, July and August.

The Marshall County Food Access Committee has a course of action to ensure that residents facing food insecurity are able to get something to eat this summer.

Cindy Staron, Emergency Food Box co-chair of operations, said they will play a larger role this summer in getting food to kids. After Gov. Kim Reynolds opted out of accepting $29 million of funds from the USDA Summer EBT program in January, committee members began formulating plans on what to do. According to Staron, food banks are one of the answers and Marshalltown and Marshall County has the highest number of eligible students in the region.

“We’ve been given the challenge of providing food for 1,300 children in June, July and August,” she said. “The Salvation Army is taking 400 of that number. We will be shipped food for 1,000 in June, July and August. We have to have a way to get that out of our building so we have room for our own shipment to come in for our families. Everybody from the state level on down are working by what we call the seat of our pants to figure it out.”

Staron said the food shipments for children will come to Marshalltown from the Food Bank of Iowa on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every summer month. Shipments will begin June 10 when the Emergency Food Box will receive roughly 6,000 pounds of food. Two weeks later, she said they will get another shipment of similar size to cover families who are not able to make it on June 10. By splitting the shipments, it will be easier to provide for the large number of children and families, she said.

“We’re thinking we’re going to go from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the following Wednesday and Thursday,” Staron said. “That will allow us to get as much food out the door as we can on those two days.”

She said the food box will receive instructions on how much of every food type each child is allowed, but does know each child will receive 12 eggs and 1 pound of hamburger. Staron said they are asking for six volunteers to come on Tuesday to help organize and pre-bag items and additional volunteers to help during three-hour shifts on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“This is more than our own staff is going to be able to manage,” she said. “We’re still going to be open out front and serving families in the afternoon, so we’re hoping a church group will come with four people for one shift.”

When families begin arriving on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, they will need to sign the Emergency Food Box document form and state how many children they have. Staron added the food is only for children ages 4 to 18, and families are only allowed to pick up the food once per month.

Heart of Iowa Big Brothers Big Sisters Executive Director Lynne Carroll asked if they would be able to pick up the food for some clients who do not drive. Staron told her a family can choose a proxy, but that person would still have to sign in.

Marshalltown Community School District Director of Food Service Lynn Large provided attendees with a list of sites for free summer meals the district will provide children. The list will be sent home with students this week, she said.

“Summer feeding kicks off June 11, and then we will be feeding through Aug. 8,” Large said. “The meals aren’t restricted to Marshalltown students or anything like that. It’s just children [ages] 18 years and younger. If anyone wants to join us from a neighboring community, they are more than welcome to do that.”

According to Large, the summer feeding effort is possible through a program with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which gives the district the ability to do noncongregate meals when available.

“Because we’re doing congregate meals Monday through Friday, we are restricted to weekend meals only for noncongregate,” she said. “So we do have the option for families to pick up a box of to-go meals from Miller Middle School for the weekend. If they want that, we have a window of 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. where they can stop by on Friday at Miller.”

Zach Tomesch, news director for KFJB, said a Marshall County Food Insecurity Team Food Drive is being organized, with a tentative plan for August. He presented sticky notes for members to look at and place on doors in communities.

“This is an old trick we would do with the Boy Scouts that we called Scouting for Food,” Tomesch said, which resulted in thousands of donated food items.

He said the date on the sticky note can be changed to make it more flexible for the various communities.

“We have the ability to put a new date on there,” Tomesch said. “All we need from you guys is the area you’re going to cover, the number of sticky notes you think you will need and then the date.”

He recommended the food drive date fall on a Saturday, as most people will be home to place the non-perishable food items in a location visible from the road by 9 a.m. Then the drive volunteers will canvas the area which received the sticky notes and collect the donated food for the Emergency Food Box and the little food pantries. Tomesch said he will speak with some Marshalltown team coaches to try to recruit teams to canvas areas.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.