Successful Discussion Series Provides Lessons for Organizing Community Conversations
December 9, 2014
This fall, the Food Bank of Iowa held a “Food for Thought” discussion series in five communities in North-
Central Iowa. The Food for Thought discussions brought together over 100 people in Storm Lake, Spencer,
Sheldon, Estherville, and Humboldt. Participants shared and learned about food insecurity, and discussed
types of food assistance programs and ways the Food Bank of Iowa can help. The discussions led to new
partnerships to combat hunger in North-Central Iowa, including with: 4 community food pantries, 9 BackPack
Program partners, 4 School Pantry partners, and a new Mobile Food Pantry site.
Christina Zink, Communications Manager at the Food Bank of Iowa, offers the following reflections on how
they organized community discussions in North-Central Iowa:
When planning the series, we took a hard look at:
Counties in our service area that have relatively high food insecurity rates
Counties in our service area where we don’t have many partner agencies
Distance, we wanted as many individuals as possible to attend so we chose towns that are easily
accessible
We also looked at availability of space to hold the meetings
In order to have a variety of individuals and groups represented, Food for Thought was open to the public. We
did targeted invites as well to:
County and local government
Businesses and chambers
Churches, community centers, senior centers
Schools
Media
Non-partner organizations that we wanted to learn more from and start up conversations
Our current partner agencies that attended were able to talk about our partnership and ways in which
the Food Bank of Iowa can help
We were so pleased, not only with turnout, but the conversation between attendees and the Food Bank of
Iowa. There are three takeaways from this event:
1. Community members are working very hard to solve food insecurity in their local
communities. While we looked at locations with few food bank partner agencies, there are many existing food
assistance programs doing great work. Local community partners from media outlets to churches to
businesses are working together to provide volunteer, financial and awareness support. The Food Bank of
Iowa sees its role as providing support to their current initiatives and helping to expand their services.
2. There is a need. Despite the incredible efforts going on in the community, there remains a significant gap in
serving food insecure individuals. As we continue to converse and partner, there are many counties that have
emergency food providers that require families to drive over 30 miles to receive help.
There are areas that have a high child hunger need and no program to help provide food assistance over the
weekend. How can we get