September 21, 2020
Members of the Grinnell Food Coalition (GFC) are seeking donations to help area families in need through the end of the year. Need grew dramatically in August as unemployment supplements ended and the derecho struck. And GFC is now asking community members who can, to contribute toward GFC food vouchers.
Joe Bagnoli explains that GFC was launched in March by volunteers wanting to help Grinnellians who lost income and faced food insecurity due to closures of businesses as the pandemic reached Iowa. GFC raised funds from grants and from donations by more than 200 Grinnellians, some giving more than once, and accumulated over $100,000.
GFC concluded that it could best help those in need by providing vouchers every other week to families to supplement their other resources, mailing vouchers to families in amounts depending on family size. A family of four receives a $90 voucher every other week and can spend those funds at Fareway, Hy-Vee, McNally’s, and the Grinnell Farmers Market. GFC in July expected to be able to continue those bi-weekly vouchers through the end of the year to families then being served.
Delphina Baumann, co-chair of fundraising for GFC, explains that GFC was serving 165 families before the expiration of unemployment benefit supplements at the end of July and the Aug. 10 derecho. As of Sept. 15, she says, GFC is now serving 258 families and over 630 individuals, an increase of over 56 percent in the number of families being served since late July.
Baumann says GFC funds on hand will be exhausted around Oct. 10. The organization needs around $45,000 per month to continue providing vouchers to those currently receiving them or a total of $135,000 to continue the program at its current level through year’s end. Bagnoli explains that GFC is hoping to gain funds through grant applications, and Baumann adds that requests are being made to potential large local donors. Both urge those who are able to consider donating to the effort, originally created to address local food insecurity caused by the pandemic and now also addressing post-derecho need.
Deanna Shorb, GFC fundraising co-chair explains that GFC worked diligently to find those in need among families with children and also among those who are single, for couples without children in the home or are elderly. She notes that families with children can be reached at schools for meals that others in need during the pandemic were not so readily contacted.
It’s been a six-month journey of us getting to know each other and figuring out how to help in one of the most unique interpersonal situations we’ve ever had,” Shorb comments. “For all those who helped in any way or who said ‘please help me’ which is not so easy to say, it’s been a great leap of connectedness in this community. The virus pulled the rug out from under people with unemployment and under-employment in a volume we’ve never seen. GFC has been a partnership among many people which equals true community.”
“Some people we’re helping have not encountered this circumstance or been a traditional target for these kinds of resources,” says Bagnoli of the effect of the pandemic and derecho. “We got the word out that, even if they’ve never needed to ask for this kind of help before, it’s okay to ask for help. We’re hoping we will be able to help them out a little while longer and hoping community members will help raise again what we’ve raised up to this point to help people get through the holiday season to the first of the year.
“I’ve seen amazing things in my 24 years of living here, seen what this community can come together and do,” Shorb says, “For Grinnell Food Coalition we got a really impressive amount of donations from the community and from an impressive number of people and we hope to continue that help.”
“We got into this because people collectively care about their neighbors in Grinnell, and they want to be of help when times become challenging for people,” sums up Bagnoli. “Even If people aren’t in a position to give again, we’re just grateful they gave the first time. Even if we’re not able to go much beyond the first part of October, their donations have helped a lot of people in our community in a time of great need, so we thank them for their prior support.”
The Grinnell Food Coalition is a partner program of the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation. The Grinnell Food Coalition is supported and advised by Grinnell residents representing the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation, Grinnell College, MICA, Imagine Grinnell, Tiger Packs, Local Foods Connection, Grinnell Chamber of Commerce, Drake Community Library and our local churches and schools.
Gifts to the Grinnell Food Coalition may be made online at https://ahrensfamilyfoundation.org/partner-program-funds/ or mailed to CDAF at P.O. Box 284, Grinnell IA 50112.
