HOW WE WORK
A food bank is a storehouse for millions of pounds of food and other products that go out to the community through food pantries, non-profit organizations, churches, and school-based programs.
Many communities have a local food pantry, sometimes mistakenly called a food bank. Most of these community food pantries are sponsored by local churches and/or community coalitions. A food pantry’s mission is to directly serve local residents who face food-insecurity.
Programs & Partners
- Mobile Food Pantry - Each month our mobile food pantry visits all seven counties we serve to provide food to communities that don’t have grocery stores or other food pantries. You can find the schedule for our mobile pantry here.
- BackPack Program - The BackPack Program offers elementary school students food for weekends and school breaks. The bags include healthy, easy-to-prepare food for kid friendly meals like macaroni and cheese, pop-top fruit cups, cereal, shelf-stable milk.
- School Pantries - While the BackPack Program provides food directly to kids, school pantries address the needs of the whole family. Our school pantries provide a way for busy families to access a food pantry at a place they already go – their kid’s school!
- College Pantries - Food insecurity has the potential to harm college students’ ability to achieve their educational and professional goals. College pantries address that harm by providing students with access to food on their college campus. Currently, HACAP Food Reservoir works with Kirkwood Community College, University of Iowa, Mt. Mercy University, and Coe College.
- Partner Agencies - We work with non-profit and faith-based partner agencies in all 7 counties we serve. Our partners operate food pantries, soup kitchens, daycares, emergency shelters, senior dining, youth programs, and other non-profit services.
- Senior Programs - Our senior drops provide on-site mobile pantry opportunities for seniors living in low-income housing communities. A new partnership with Heritage Agency on Aging will expand efforts to help seniors access food at congregate meal sites.
- Healthcare Partnerships - A collaboration between Mercy Medical Center (Cedar Rapids) to screen patients for food insecurity and connect them with appropriate resources.
- Connections – A program that provides mental health screening and resources for needs related to the social determinants of health in community settings such as food pantries, libraries or community non-profits.
Hunger in Iowa
Feeding America has published the Map the Meal Gap project since 2011 to learn more about the face of hunger at the local level click here.
