Category: education

Position Statement on House File 3

On By christinamcdonoughIn Board, education, hunger1 Comment

The Food Rescue Partnership Board encourages our lawmakers to continue supporting food access for Iowans.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation’s most important and effective tool at addressing hunger and food insecurity. In November 2022, SNAP provided $45.6 million benefits to 273,085 Iowans. In Scott County, 11.98% of residents benefited from SNAP assistance spending $1.98 average per meal benefit per individual.

Since 2013, the Food Rescue Partnership has prioritized the need to improve food availability by building a strong, well-connected food rescue network. Because hunger does not affect one type of person or one geographic location. Young or old. Rural or urban. Hunger affects 1 in 7 people throughout the United States and 229,500 Iowans. 

Supporting House File 3 threatens individual food choice, increases stress on already strained food pantries, and negatively impacts overall health of Iowans by increasing hunger and food insecurity. A research project in Davenport has identified foods needed by food pantry recipients and to make use of existing foods from local pantries. Many of the items identified by participants would be excluded by SNAP if these changes are implemented. Increasing choice reduces waste. Specifically, restrictions on choice within SNAP will limit participant access to the foods they and their families need. Limiting SNAP participants’ choices means they will have no access to supplemental items needed, such as ingredients to prepare meals at home. The harmful proposals in the bill include:

  • Restricting SNAP purchases to only foods on the WIC approved food item list.
  • Establishing an asset limit for SNAP.
  • Performing regular eligibility verification checks for SNAP and Medicaid.
  • Requiring participation in the SNAP Employment & Training program.
  • Requiring custodial parents to cooperate with the child support recovery unit.

Therefore, the Food Rescue Partnership Board does not support any efforts to restrict food purchases or establish an asset limit for SNAP. The Food Rescue Partnership supports efforts to improve food access and SNAP incentives to support Iowans making healthy choices such as Double Up Food Bucks.

To learn more about how you can protect SNAP, please visit the Iowa Hunger Coalition website.

Sincerely,

2022 Year in Review

On By foodrescueqcIn Board, community outreach, education, events, food rescue, food waste, hunger, Member in Food Rescue, partners, volunteerLeave a comment

Dear Food Rescue Partnership Stakeholders and Friends,

I would like to reflect on the last year and what is to come for the Food Rescue Partnership. 

In 2022, stakeholders learned about ‘Rural Food Deserts across the State of Iowa’ from Jordon Burrows, reconvened for our first 100% in-person meeting for a fiscal year 2023 planning session, and launched a ‘Food rescue at Home’ social media campaign.

The Food Rescue Partnership hosted its fourth Food Rescue Workshop at St. Ambrose University! This was an exciting return to our in-person event and proved to be a successful collaboration with St. Ambrose University as many of their students attended. More than 40 attendees made new connections and learned how food waste and reduction trends changed during the COVID pandemic, a local model for personalized healthy food pantry, and how to compost at home.

For the third year in a row, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Food Rescue Partnership earned a Food Recovery Challenge Award! The Food Rescue Partnership is one of 18 innovative businesses and organizations that are being recognized by the U.S. EPA at a national level for work completed in 2020 and 2021. This is the first time our Quad Cities’ coalition earned national recognition!

To date, the Food Rescue Partnership has diverted more than 53,963 pounds of food from the landfill by making connections to feed hungry people, feed animals, and/or compost. 

Ringing in 2023, I look forward to expanding our food waste reduction and recovery messaging to at home strategies and learning more about various compost methods.

The Food Rescue Partnership is driven by caring and motivated stakeholders and community partners.  Most importantly, the Food Rescue Partnership is a team of great people.  On behalf of myself and the Food Rescue Partnership Board, thank you.

Happy New Year,

Christina McDonough, Board Chair

Local Chefs Recognized for Heroic Food Rescue Efforts during COVID-19

On By foodrescueqcIn community outreach, Donor Recognition Program, education, events, food rescue, food waste, hunger, Member in Food Rescue, partners, volunteer1 Comment

The Quad Cities Food Rescue Partnership added a new feature to their biennial event with the announcement of the Quad Cities first-ever Food Rescue Warrior and Member of the Year. 

Chris Carton, Food and Beverage Director and Executive Chef; Pete Vogel, Food Rescue Partnership; and Christina McDonough, Food Rescue Partnership
Chef Chris Carton, Pete Vogel, Christina McDonough

“Chef Chris Carton of the RiverCenter|Adler Theatre exemplifies food rescue on a daily basis,” says Christina McDonough, Chair of the Food Rescue Partnership.  “During the particularly difficult pandemic times in our community, the RiverCenter|Adler Theatre is recognized for Chef Carton’s initiative to confirm the ability to operate a safe community kitchen under the RiverCenter|Adler Theatre’s food license so that professional food handlers could volunteer to prepare and serve food that would have otherwise been wasted,” explains McDonough.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is blckpearlcatering-.jpg
Pete Vogel, Chef Yolanda Graves-Jefferson, Cassandra Nephew, Christina McDonough

Similarly, the Food Rescue Partnership called for nominations of the Quad

Cities first-ever, Food Rescue Warrior.  “Yolanda Graves-Jefferson received heartfelt nominations for her passion to rescue food and feed those in need,” says McDonough.  Graves-Jefferson developed a passion for donating excess food to local hunger relief agencies as the Owner and Chef of Blckpearl Catering.  “Graves-Jefferson knew increasing numbers of people faced illness and unemployment during COVID-19 and utilized her culinary experience and personal resources to feed more than 200 people every week,” explains McDonough.

The Food Rescue Partnership recognized the RiverCenter|Adler Theatre and Yolanda Graves-Jefferson for their heroic food rescue efforts during the Food Rescue Webinar Series.  Webinar recordings will be available for replay here.

FRP Debuts Videos Thanks to Fresh Films

On By Lea HenselIn community outreach, education3 Comments

downloadEarlier this year, the Food Rescue Partnership was selected as one of two local non-profits to participate in a new program offered by Fresh Films – the chance to work with Quad Cities teens who would create a video and a public service announcement in just five days over Spring Break.

“I was absolutely overjoyed when receiving the news that the FRP was accepted to be a part of the Fresh Films Quad City Spring Break Program,” says Christina McDonough, FRP Vice-Chair. “As a community coalition, the FRP has a very limited budget and the majority of FRP outreach activities and materials have been provided through in-kind donations or grants. Being selected for the Fresh Films Quad City Spring Break Program gives the FRP a new and unique marketing opportunity that we wouldn’t have otherwise had.”

Filming
Students filming at Ross’ Restaurant, one of the FRP’s Members in Food Rescue

The process was a strong collaborative effort. FRP board members and stakeholders met with students to talk about the FRP and talk about ideas for video and the script. From there, the Fresh Films staff let the students run with their ideas.

Pete Vogel, FRP Chair said, “After hearing of our selection and learning more about this program, we rather expected a lot of energy and creativity from this group of young people, and we certainly experienced all of that. But what impressed me the most was the commitment to quality and to an ambitious schedule that they demonstrated. It was a joy to see such enthusiasm paired with the dedication to a project and a cause that they all came to embrace, and it shows in the finished product!”

The students wrote the initial script and it went through editing between FRP and Fresh Films. Then they got to use Fresh Films video equipment to take footage of the Quad Cities community and conduct interviews with some of FRP’s Food Rescue Members, including Ross’ Restaurant, Popcorn Charlie’s, and Outback Steakhouse.

“What’s really impressive is the amount of work the students were able to accomplish just over Spring Break,” says Lea Hensel, an FRP stakeholder. “The students asked great questions and had really neat ideas right off the bat.”

From the FRP Board and its stakeholders, thank you for the Fresh Films teams and the students that created our videos. Watch them below and let us know what you think!

Kicking off 2018 as an Award Winning Coalition

On By Lea HenselIn education, food rescue, food waste1 Comment

Award WinningLast week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of the 2017 Food Recovery Challenge Regional Awards, and the Food Rescue Partnership (FRP) is proud to share that our coalition is one of the Region 7 awardees!

In June 2016, the FRP became endorsers of the U.S. EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge to align local Quad Cities professional food establishments and retail food stores with national sustainable management of food initiatives. “Becoming endorsers of the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge made perfect sense for the FRP,” says Christina McDonough, FRP Board Secretary.

fd_reccvry_hierachy_363pxwMcDonough was a strong advocate for the FRP to join the challenge and as Board Secretary, she was the one to get the FRP registered as an endorser and continues to maintain the outreach activity records that are provided to the EPA annually. “Since our onset in 2013, FRP regularly refers to the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy (see image to the left) and while the primary focus of FRP is to feed hungry people, we also connect professional food establishments and retail food stores to local resources on feeding animals and composting.”

Aside from being among the great company of other awardees implementing amazing initiatives towards food waste diversion and getting food to those in need, the FRP has something that makes it unique among the others – it’s the only bi-state winner and actually stretches through two U.S. EPA Regions (5 and 7)! “This award is a testament to our extraordinary stakeholders and partners whose commitment to a Quad Cities that promotes rescuing food for its best possible use continues to drive us to be a community dedicated to eliminating food waste,” concludes Pete Vogel, FRP Board Chair.

Learn more and check out the other award winners at About the 2017 Food Recovery Challenge Regional Award Winners.

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

On By Lea HenselIn community outreach, education, food rescue, food waste, hungerLeave a comment

The Food Rescue Partnership has officially been around for three years. We have a great group of active stakeholders dedicated to food rescue but towards the middle of last year, we reached a crossroads. We gained some traction after the workshop in October 2015 and our research showed two avenues that had real needs in the community – outreach and transportation as well as education and awareness.

But where should our emphasis be placed? And what could we realistically accomplish? With those questions in mind, we embarked on a Strategic Planning Process that began last fall. With the help of our stakeholders, we started with a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to get firsthand input on the current strengths and weaknesses, as well as where our focuses should be for the future.

With those results in hand and many discussions looking at the pros versus the cons as well as what we wanted to accomplish versus what was realistic for us to accomplish, we are ready to share the outcomes of the planning process and where we are heading for the future.

New Revised Mission Statement

Multiple variations were discussed to result in the revisions of the FRP mission statement. We wanted to ensure the mission was direct but still broad enough that it could lead us into future efforts of food recovery.

The Food Rescue Partnership is a Quad Cities coalition that promotes rescuing food for its best possible use.

Development of a Vision Statement

The vision statement is really based on the initial concept of the FRP when the Scott County Health Department created it – reducing food waste.

Quad Cities – a community dedicated to eliminating food waste.

Creation of Core Value Statements

Five core values will be used as the FRP moves forward to achieving its goals.

  • Collaboration – Facilitate active partnerships to increase food rescue.
  • Communication – Practice and maintain clear communication with all in order to connect and educate.
  • Community – Cultivate a continually growing group of partners effectively engaged in food rescue.
  • Resourcefulness – Innovate to adapt proactively and develop solutions to ensure the best use of stakeholders’ resources.
  • Safety – Prioritize safety for our donors, recipients, and volunteers during the entire food rescue process.

Goals

No strategic plan is complete without goals and next steps. To keep things simple and moving forward, the FRP decided on two overarching goals with numerous action steps within each goal.

  1. Form and maintain eight new partnerships per fiscal year between community stakeholders to rescue food for its best possible use.
    • This really looks at the core of the coalition – establishing relationships. Connecting recipient agencies and donors and providing the information needed to ensure food is used for its possible use.
  2. Provide monthly food rescue education and awareness to the community at-large.
    • With a focus on building and maintaining the FRP foundation, the second goal the FRP is actively educating and providing awareness throughout the community.

The strategic planning process could not have been completed without the hard work of the many stakeholder organizations that provided their time and input into setting the course for the future. As we continue to move forward, we’ll keep everyone updated on our progress. The best places to stay updated are to like us on Facebook or get involved and become a stakeholder!

“Share the Love – Starting a Food Rescue Program in Your Community” Webinar

On By Lea HenselIn education, food rescue, partners1 Comment

WebinarLogosWe are excited to be joining Eat Greater Des Moines and Table to Table in an upcoming webinar focused on food rescue and community efforts!

Each organization has had a different start and a different process to food rescue. Through the “Share the Love – Starting a Food Rescue Program in Your Community” webinar, you’ll learn:

  • Three different models addressing food rescue in Iowa communities
  • Federal laws in place to protect food donors
  • Resources available to start a food rescue program in your community

Each group will share how they got started, lessons learned, and resources available to other groups looking to replicate efforts in their community.

Download the webinar flyer here or click below to register for the webinar!

Date: Wednesday, August 31st
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm (CST)
Registration
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Help Augustana Become the Next Campus Kitchen

On By Lea HenselIn community outreach, education, food rescue, hunger, partnersLeave a comment

The Campus Kitchens Project has been helping universities and schools set up campus kitchens in big schools as well as small, rural and urban, colleges and high schools through student-powered hunger relief efforts. In fact, there are 51 Campus Kitchens throughout the country and Augustana College in Rock Island wants to become the next.

Augustana is currently competing with three other schools to receive a $5,000 grant. It will be the only one within almost 200 miles. Each school is able to tailor its Campus Kitchen to the specific needs of the campus and community using the following four components:

  1. Food recovery
  2. Meal preparation
  3. Meal delivery
  4. Empowerment and education

Voting is open from May 2-9 and you can vote once every 24 hours per device. Click below to go to Augustana’s page, watch the video and click the vote button below the video.

Augustana has helped out the QC Food Rescue Partnership so much, let’s do the same for Augustana!

Augustana_Video
Click to visit Augustana’s page on the Next Campus Kitchen Competition

 

FRP to Present at Iowa Governor’s Conference on Public Health

On By Lea HenselIn education, events

GovernorConf_2016We are excited to share that the Food Rescue Partnership has been chosen to present at the Iowa Governor’s Conference on Public Health this year.

“How the Quad Cities Initiative a Grassroots Effort to Increase Food Rescue” will share how the Scott County Health Department engaged community members and organizations to establish the Food Rescue Partnership to increase food rescue from food establishments and retail food stores.

Represented the Food Rescue Partnership will be Christina McDonough from the Scott County Health Department, Lea Hensel from the Iowa Waste Reduction Center, and Pete Vogel, Food Rescue Partnership Board Chair.

For more information, please visit the Iowa Public Health Association website here.

Sneak Peek: Local & Regional Initiatives Panel at the Food Rescue Workshop

On By Lea HenselIn education, eventsLeave a comment

Sneak Peek: Food Rescue Workshop PanelThere are great things going on all throughout Iowa to reduce food waste by feeding people instead of landfills, which is the focus of the first panel at the next month’s Food Rescue Workshop.

The FRP will be welcoming four experts that will present varying approaches to the issue of food rescue. Bob Andrlik from Table to Table will describe how his program helps to keep food as a resource, not a waste, along with how the Iowa City initiative got started.

From the middle of Iowa, Aubrey Alvarez, executive director of Eat Greater Des Moines, will be joining us. Aubrey has widespread knowledge to share on building easier connections between donors and recipients, including the development of a mobile app that aims to make this connection even easier.

The final two panelists are from our beloved Quad Cities. Mike Miller, executive director of the River Bend Foodbank and treasurer for the Food Rescue Partnership will provide further information on the hunger issue in the QC, as well as the important distinction between a food bank and a food pantry. And last but not least will be Christina McDonough from the Scott County Health Department. Christina will explain how the issue of food rescue was chosen as the focus for the Food Rescue Partnership as well as information on local questionnaire findings.

Working collaboratively and learning from each other allows these initiatives to implement change throughout Iowa so we can ensure food is being treated as the resource it is. We’ll see you October 20!

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