Feeding the community

Whether families can afford — let alone find — groceries is not something teachers and staff want their community to worry about. On Wednesday afternoon, they made sure of that.

Drivers pulled their cars up to the east entrance of WEST Academy and filled out a sheet of paper handed to them on a clipboard by staff. On that sheet of paper was a long list of food items. Everything from cereals to frozen meats to fresh produce and bags of potatoes were up for grabs.

All folks needed to do was mark what they wanted. So long as the in-school food pantry did not run out of stock, families would head home with boxes and bags full of groceries. WEST Academy combined its pantry stock with the pantries from both Newton High School and Berg Middle School.

Any family in Newton could pick up food free of charge. Staff held two shifts, and there was a line each time.

“We got to see it wrapping around the parking lot,” WEST Academy Principal Tara Zehr said. “Judy (Nissly, a science teacher at WEST,) was saying there were 10 to 12 cars at any given time.”

Kelly Sorenson, secretary at WEST Academy, said there was very little food left after providing 79 families with groceries. When those clipboards of food lists started piling up, staff were leaping over boxes of pasta and totes full of noodles to finish their orders and move on to the next.

Shelly Fitzgerald, a school
counselor at Newton High School, said the second shift allowed teachers and staff to operate a little smoother. The process was nailed down by then. Ryan Comer, a social studies teacher at WEST Academy, said knowing where food was and getting a pattern down helped the flow.

A service like this was likely appreciated and sorely needed for some families after COVID-19 community spread concerns forced Iowa schools to close, leaving some kids without a steady meal that would originally have been provided by the district.

Even people who have the means are having difficulties buying groceries, Sorenson said. Since there are people out of work and have their children staying at home, Fitzgerald said school staff wanted to make sure everyone in the community had food.

On average, teachers and staff served families of five or six.

“We had families range from 3 to 11 people,” Fitzgerald said. “But we did see families pulling up with their young children in the car and all excited. It was very encouraging to see how people were very thankful for what we were doing. Every car thanked us.”

Staff hope to continue this service in the coming weeks. Another shipment of food is expected to arrive from the Food Bank of Iowa next week.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com