Johnson County Crisis Center launches fundraising campaign for food warehouse expansion

IOWA CITY - The Crisis Center of Johnson County has embarked on a fundraising effort with the hopes of expanding its food warehouse to help serve more than 1,000 families per week.

Staff at the organization have had to turn away large, unexpected food donations because of a lack of room or proper storage facilities inside the food warehouse, which was built in 2003 when the Crisis Center served 350 families per week. To help expand the warehouse, the center has launched a 'Grow Your Local Food Bank” fundraising initiative to raise the remaining $45,000 of project costs.

'With the addition of the mobile pantry and the school pantries, we're storing a lot more food. And the need has increased, obviously, so we need more room,” said Sara Sedlacek, communications and development director, adding there's 'very little” room to move around in the space.

Sedlacek estimates the expansion will create room for 15 to 20 additional pallets of food. It also would include an expanded food repacking room, cooler storage for fresh produce, a 24-hour donation drop off and an additional restroom.

'It's going to be a much better experience for the donors but also for the volunteers. I'm personally really excited about that but I think the volunteers are, too,” Sedlacek said, adding that it's often congested because donors come to the same door that clients leave from after checking out.

If all goes according to plan, the center hopes to break ground on the project on Feb. 1 with a construction timeline of 12 weeks. Sedlacek said officials plan to keep the food bank in operation throughout the work.

Total project costs are estimated to be about $300,000, Sedlacek said, and much of that is covered by community development block grants, county sustainability grants, an anonymous donor and University of Iowa Community Credit Union community match donation.

Sedlacek said the center is hoping to raise the money by 'Giving Tuesday,” which is Nov. 28. A week into the campaign, the organization already had raised about $3,500 and it's spreading the word through social media, emails and conversations with community groups.

For community members who may want to donate to the cause, Sedlacek said they can drop off or send a check to the center at 1121 Gilbert Court, Iowa City, IA 52240 with a 'warehouse” memo. Donations also can be made online at jccrisiscenter.org. Once there, click on 'Grow Your Local Food Bank” under the 'Donate” tab.

' ... We're not just raising money to raise money. We're raising money to make the experience better for the people we're serving,” Sedlacek said.

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