News Track: Cedar Rapids food pantry out of crisis mode after emergency fundraiser

CEDAR RAPIDS — It’s been almost six months since Together We Achieve, a Cedar Rapids food pantry, reached out to the community in a last-ditch effort to prevent its closure.

The nonprofit held an emergency fundraiser at the end of August, hoping to raise $50,000 to stay open through the end of 2024. Now, almost three months into 2025, the pantry still is open and — although the financial outlook is never perfect for a nonprofit — things are looking up, according to Raymond Siddell, founder and president of Together We Achieve.

Background

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On Aug. 28, 2024, Together We Achieve issued a call for donations. The nonprofit was running low on funds after multiple grant proposals were rejected, and it asked the community to contribute $50,000 so it could stay open through the end of the year.

The call came just after Olivet Neighborhood Mission, another large food pantry in Cedar Rapids, announced it would be closing at the end of August. Many of those who relied on services from Olivet already had started visiting Together We Achieve instead, and they were worried about what they would do if another large pantry closed.

Together We Achieve had written $127,000 worth of grant proposals in the six months before the emergency fundraiser, but hadn’t gotten the responses it was hoping for, according to Siddell, who said that many of the companies and granters that had previously offered funding were shifting their focus to funding systemic projects that focus more on long-term solutions to food insecurity.

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“I would agree that systemically something needs to change and that we need to look at alternatives, but we can't cut out the food pantries at their knees, when the need is so high,” Siddell said at the time.

Fifteen days after making the announcement, the pantry was able to reach the $50,000 goal. But the donations didn’t stop coming in after that goal was reached, Siddell said.

What’s happened since

Since the fundraiser, businesses and individuals in the community have continued to reach out and offer financial support to Together We Achieve.

“The community came together, supported us during that difficult time, and carried us through,” Siddell said.

The Aegon Transamerica Foundation, as part of its end-of-year giving program, gave the pantry a little over $11,000. The nonprofit also was able to secure some additional grants in the time since the fundraiser, including a $25,000 grant from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation.

Siddell said since the immediate danger of closure has passed, he’s now trying to find ways to build a stronger system to cope with food insecurity in Linn County by collaborating more closely with other nonprofits in the area.

“As far as the funding is concerned, it’s something that we will need to be hyper vigilant about over the coming months,” Siddell said. “As we look forward, we’re really looking at these partnerships and how we can work better together and really work towards that goal of addressing food insecurity, to reduce the number of visits to food pantries as a whole, not just our pantry.”

Part of that process has involved attending monthly Food Pantry Partner meetings, which were started last year by Linn County Public Health, around the time of Together We Achieve’s emergency fundraiser.

“That’s been a nice opportunity to have conversations with individuals who have different operation styles, they’re seeing different populations, and of course, we all have different resources, too,” Siddell said. “It’s being able to come together on what each of us is experiencing, how we’re overcoming challenges, what we’re seeing, where we’ve seen similarities and where are the differences, and to then identify how can we start addressing those as a team, as a community.”

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Siddell said collaborations have already started, including working together during Thanksgiving and Christmas to ensure that clients who visit various local food programs, especially those with language barriers or difficulty accessing the internet, were able to sign up to receive food boxes through Together We Achieve’s holiday meal program.

Since November, Together We Achieve also has been partnering with Central Furniture Rescue — a Cedar Rapids nonprofit that provides donated furniture to people exiting homelessness — to provide a box of food to each of the furniture rescue organization’s clients, with the goal of helping them with the transition into new housing and hopefully making it less likely that they will need to visit a food pantry as they get settled.

Siddell said the two nonprofits have been discussing ways to expand that food box with more perishable food items, like dairy and protein, either by adding a refrigeration space to Central Furniture Rescue’s warehouse or by providing coupons.

“We wanted to make sure that people had an opportunity to get food, maybe keep them out of the food pantry line, if we can do that, but also lessen that burden as they go through that transition,” Siddell said.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com