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Sing for Their Supper
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The Coralville Community Food Pantry offers art, music and poetry in exchange for supporting Johnson County’s food insecure. BY GENEVIEVE TRAINOR
ver the last several years, the food insecurity rate in Johnson County was dropping. According to interactive maps from the organization Feeding America, it went from 13.9 percent in 2016 down to 8.2 percent in 2018 and maintained that in 2019. But a projection the site ran for the impacts of COVID-19 predicted a rise to 10.6 percent for the year 2020. As someone who has myself felt the impact of hunger, having been on food stamps at multiple points in my adult life and utilizing food banks during one interminable stretch between jobs, those are more than just statistics. They’re the uncertainty of being able to fill my kids’ bellies. They’re the embarrassment of even asking for help (something that I am notoriously bad at). The Coralville Community Food Pantry (CCFP), founded in 2009, has made it their mission to address not just food insecurity, but the stigma surrounding it. And they’ve
made great strides toward doing so. “Food brings us together” is the central message on their website landing page, and they work hard to remind our community of that simple truth. Each year, they hold a community meal that welcomes all comers without question of need, simply to break bread together. This month, they’ll host a foraging clinic for beginners of all ages, which will be livestreamed to reach more than just the limited number of attendees they can allow. They recently held a two-day vaccination clinic at the Coralville Public Library with the goal of providing 600+ doses to vulnerable Iowans. And during the height of the pandemic last year, they delivered food to the homes of those who were unable or unwilling to venture out for it, just as major grocery stores were expanding their
Music for Meals, Coralville Community Food Pantry, coralvillefoodpantry.org and North Ridge Pavilion, Coralville, Thursday, May 27, 5:30 p.m., $25-200
Caleb Rainey, photo via the artist
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Sandrah Nina, photo via the artist
delivery programs as well. This ethos of serving the whole person, not just the need, is evident in their annual fundraiser, Music for Meals, as well. By pairing music and other performance with a curated dinner, they feed the spirits as well as the bellies of even their donors, reminding them of their own wholeness, as well as that of the people their donations support. Tara McGovern, lead organizer of this year’s event, has been a CCFP board member just since January of this year. She describes the organization as “more than a pantry, it’s a community united in dedication to addressing the physical and emotional needs of every resident.” Her involvement with
the M4M event began last year, as a performer. “Last year I was a performer in my folk rock duo with Jeffrey C. Capps called The Soft and Low,” McGovern said in an email. “Jeff and I were both so honored to be included as we are both devoted to the pantry, me as a longtime resident of Coralville and Jeff as the director of the Iowa Children’s Museum (located in Coralville).” McGovern is a steady hand in every task she undertakes, bringing the same mix of flexibility and precision as she exhibits as a performer—and her influence can be seen in the details of the upcoming fundraiser. It’s a delicate balance of meeting the needs of those who still
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