Hunger Ministries
Highlights of Hunger Ministries
Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry and Advocacy
DMARC is an interfaith nonprofit organization with a mission of working together to meet basic human needs for the greater Des Moines Community. DMARC provides a common means of responding to basic human needs and a context for interfaith dialogue.
DMARC manages a Food Pantry Network consisting of 14 separate partnering food pantry sites, a mobile Food Pantry, home delivery service, and numerous community supporters. The DMARC Food Pantry Network is health-based and is the largest food pantry network in Iowa. Food pantry sites are located in Des Moines, Ankeny, Clive, Johnston, Urbandale, and West Des Moines.
Calamus Lutheran Parish - Weekend Food Ministry for Elementary Students
Throughout the year, members of Faith and Our Savior's churches collect food or monetary donations to provide weekend meals and snacks for children at the local elementary school who may not have sufficient resources at home. Members package the food and bring it to the elementary school where the school counselor distributes to those who need them.
North Liberty Community Pantry
The North Liberty Community Pantry is an outreach ministry of the North Liberty First United Methodist Church. Our vision is that we are the path through which our community meets its members' needs for food, clothing, and essentials. We empower neighbors to share resources, providing opportunities for an improved quality of life. We provide dignity and respoect by offering a shopping experience to families. Families have the self-determination to take what they need and choose what they want.
In 2022, we served over 2400 individuals from 778 families. in 2023, we are on pace to surpass this total. We are grateful for the ongoing community support that helps us grow to meet the needs of our neighbors.
Quad Cities - Tapestry Farms
Tapestry Farms is a nonprofit urban farm system that invests in refugees who live in the Quad Cities.
We persistently work to eliminate barriers refugees experience to housing, education, medical and mental health care, work, food, transportation, community, and citizenship.
We reclaim underutilized land in Quad City neighborhoods, growing culturally responsie food so that all inour community are abundantly fed.
Madrid - Greater Love Ministries
Greater Love Ministries is a Food Pantry and Clothing Thrift Store that serves the people of the Madrid community. It is sponsored by local churches and helps with food, clothing and small household items. People can get a food basket each month and additional meals are provided during the holidays of Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Davenport - Zion Lutheran Church Food Pantry
In June 2006 Zion Lutheran Church Davenport opened its emergency food pantry with the mission to address food insecurity in the Iowa Quad Cities. Zion’s Emergency Food Pantry is open to community members Mondays and Thursdays 3:30-5:00. People can visit the pantry once every 30 days. The pantry is supported by members of the congregation. We are a consumer choice pantry staffed by a volunteer team. We ensure a variety of foods are available for our consumers to choose from, such as fresh produce when available, meat, cereal, canned goods, and some household products. We serve approximately 165 households monthly benefiting 580+ individuals. Our goal is to provide enough food to feed a household for three days as they work though a financial struggle.
Pleasant Valley - Trinity Lutheran Garden Feeding Ministry
Trinity Lutheran Church in Pleasant Valley has begun a new Feeding Ministry Garden that provides fresh produce to those in need through a partnership with the Central Community Circle Food Pantry of Davenport. Just out the window of the sanctuary, members have planted and raised tomatoes, peppers, onions, beans, and radishes that have grown well and begun to be harvested and shared with our neighbors. Cucumbers and squash are also being grown by members who have more garden space available.
The garden is bearing fruit abundantly, and we thank God for the generosity of our congregation in their efforts to use our green space to share with the dozens of clients served by the CCC Food Pantry. Goals for the future include expanding the garden if possible and incorporating a broader variety of foods to provide as necessary.
West Branch - Angel Meals
In November of 2022, I started an organization called Angel Meals. This is a program to help the West Branch teenagers connect with Sr Citizens. The volunteers in the organization prepare a meal for the senior citizens, deliver the meals, and have up to a ½ hr of fellowship. The purpose is to provide meals and fellowship to the elderly and help the teenagers develop leadership skills. The program currently has 18 elderly participants and has had over 30 volunteers. Each month, with the help of other volunteers that I recruit through my community, school, and church, we prepare and deliver home-cooked meals, handmade cards, as well as provide a time of fellowship with several senior citizens in West Branch. After graduation, I transferred this organization to another member within Bethany Lutheran Church.
Cedar Rapids - Feed Iowa First
In February, 2020 the congregation at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids partnered with the non-profit Feed Iowa First as part of their efforts to become more vital in the community. Starting as a 2,000 square foot urban farm, a 4,600 square foot farm plus another 4,600 square foot farm that supports a Honduran farmer through Feed Iowa First’s Equitable Land Access (ELA) program now occupy a large part of what once was a well-manicured front yard. According to Emmaly Renshaw, Executive Director, Feed Iowa First, St. Andrew has helped to bring fresh nutrient-laden vegetables to 40,000 people in 2022 alone. Feed Iowa First helps St. Andrew by providing plant starts, irrigation supplies, farming knowledge, general labor, and - most importantly - distribution for the culturally-relevant food that the garden at St. Andrew provides. The farmers at St. Andrew have grown everything from amaranth to zucchini. Gardening permitted members to maintain contact through the pandemic because it was outside and easily permitted proper distancing. St. Andrew and Feed Iowa First - partnering to feed the hungry with fresh, nutrient-laden vegetables in community.
Davenport - All Saints Lutheran Church Food Pantry
All Saints Lutheran Church Food Pantry has been serving food insecure community members for over twenty years. We have been open every Saturday (including holidays and through Covid) from 11:00-1:00 serving over 150 families each week.
The addition of the clothing closet ten years ago has helped the homeless and all who come through our doors with kindness, dignity and grace.
Princeton - Grissom Snack Program and Blessing Box
Grissom Snack Program
Zion provides snacks to the local school, to be used for the children in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program, along with other students in need. They received 5 snacks a week. Healthy snacks are donated by church members and distributed through the Virgil Grissom Elementary School Counselor. This is a partnership with our Outreach Committee and North Scott Schools. Last school year Zion donated 3560 individual snacks to children in need. We are continuing this program, doing food donation on the third Sunday of each month and expecting to donate even more snacks this school year.
Blessing Box
Zion is the location of a Blessing Box provided by North Scott Cares group. We have taken on the task of keeping it stocked with food year round. The need for groceries seems to be increasing in our area as it is a constant task to keep it stocked. Food is provided by Zion members.
Davenport - Grace Lutheran Church Milk Ministry
Grace Lutheran Church in Davenport partners with Café on Vine to provide weekly donations of milk for their free daily meals. Located in downtown Davenport, Café on Vine feeds approximately 200 people for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, lunch on Saturday, and an evening meal on Sundays. Through these meals, Café on Vine has become known where people not only receive a hot meal, but also a supportive community. Grace Lutheran’s milk ministry donates an average of 20 gallons a week or 80 gallons a month. This ministry is funded through donations which have created a designated account in the church’s budget. Because of a few dedicated volunteers who share their time each week delivering milk, this program has become a reliable source of milk for Café on Vine. This ministry allows to collaborate with many other organizations throughout Davenport who also share donations with Café on Vine. We are able to contribute in a way that is sustainable and reliable for the congregation. We value that our community is stronger when we work together to feed and nourish our neighbors.
Cedar Rapids - First Lutheran Hunger Ministry Programs
The Saturday Evening Meal Program has been serving a free meal in the heart of Cedar Rapids, IA every week for over 35 years. (Even when Christmas Eve lands on Saturdays)! Teams of volunteers from our church and a few other community ministries work in rotation to cook and serve the meals. Currently we serve around 150 guests each weekend.
During the Covid pandemic of 2020 we significantly expanded our meal programs for the homeless in our community. We now provide daily meals in coordination with Willis Dady Homeless Services and the Cedar Rapids Overflow Shelter when it is in service. Through these combined efforts we served nearly 30,000 meals to the Cedar Rapids Community in 2022 alone. Coordinating all of this is only possible thanks to the efforts of our on-staff Food Service Coordinator, Ruth Ehrhardt.
In addition to these direct meals served, our Hunger Ministry Team also aides in collecting and distributing food resources through the HACAP organization, partners with other churches for the weekday Neighborhood Meal Program during the summer and works to promote the annual CROP Hunger Walk.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider in alignment with U.S.D.A. Nondiscrimination Statement.
Details and contacts for the Saturday Evening Meal Program and our Hunger Ministry Team can be found at:
Eldridge - North Scott Community Feed Our Children Ministry, a ministry of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church.
North Scott Community Feed our Children Ministry began in 2017 after a few of the members of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Eldridge, heard a news story about how many of the children in the North Scott Community School District were on free or reduced lunch and would be in need of food over the summer. Within a week, we began making lunches for children in the district. We began with 15 lunches on that first day, and at the end of the summer of 2023, we were delivering nearly 200 lunches around the whole district every Tuesday and Thursday during the summer.
Each Tuesday and Thursday, a group of volunteers, including several generations, gather at 10:00 am to make the 200 sandwiches (mostly peanut butter and jelly with cheese sandwiches for those with allergies), and assemble the lunches that include chips, fruit, either a yogurt stick or cheese stick, a dessert, a juice box or water, a snack for later in the day and a breakfast item for the following morning. Drivers then arrive about 11:30 am to take the lunches that have been packed in coolers out in each direction to cover as much of the 256 square mile district as we can.
While this ministry is coordinated by members of Faith, and run on site by a couple of our high school youth, we are grateful to the larger North Scott Community for their support of the ministry by volunteering on Tuesdays and Thursdays and donating food items and money with which to purchase food. This ministry is not only about building strong children by providing the food they need to thrive, but also building a stronger community in the work that we do together.
Ankeny - The Garden of Eatin’
The Garden of Eatin' is a partnership between Resurrection Lutheran and LSI in Ankeny, Iowa. What started as a Global Greens Garden for LSI Immigrant and Refugee Services clients has expanded to include other neighbors who need a piece of dirt to grow food for themselves. Each gardener gets a 20'x20' plot to grow whatever they want. Currently, our garden has 19 plots; we plan to approximately double the size next spring to accommodate our growing waitlist.
www.lsiowa.org/global-greens