Uncertainty looms as more cuts are made to AmeriCorps

Although she served as an AmeriCorps volunteer nearly 20 years ago, Jamie Nagel was devastated when she found out the service program was facing federal budget cuts and grant revocations.

An Iowa native who now lives in Des Moines, Nagel said that she joined AmeriCorps right out of college. She spent some time doing service work in Los Angeles but came back to the Mason City area to give back to her community.

Nagel worked in translation services for legal aides and worked with Social Security disability cases. After her time in AmeriCorps and earning her degree in social work, Nagel helped develop some of Iowa’s AmeriCorps programs.

“I supported a lot of the longtime programs that have been cut,” she said. “So, it's really devastating to see all that work just disappear so quickly.”

Organizations and nonprofits from around the country found out Friday that grants going toward some AmeriCorps programs were being rescinded by the Department of Government Efficiency — or DOGE — marking another blow to the federal program. Nationwide, $400 million in grants were rescinded.

In April, AmeriCorps members from the National Civilian Community Corps branch were let go, effective immediately. One of the nonprofits affected by that is the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids. Its 10 AmeriCorps members were supposed to work at the center for eight weeks, but they were cut after six.

Between the April cuts and Friday’s grant recall, 15 programs and 568 AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA members in Iowa — half its current members — were affected. Friday’s action alone affected about 300 AmeriCorps members in Iowa, said Rachel Bruns, chief engagement officer with the nonprofit America's Service Commissions, which works closely with the AmeriCorps program.

Nonprofits and other agencies — including governments and higher education institutions — have AmeriCorps partnership in which members receive stipends for exchange for their service work, which can include community projects and responding to disasters.

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Where the program stands

Bruns said that about 85 percent of AmeriCorps’ federal staff have been placed on administrative leave. A “significant number” of grantees received termination notices Friday.

Although many of the AmeriCorps programs lost their grant funding, they technically are still running, Bruns said — like the AmeriCorps VISTA program, which focuses on combating poverty by working with nonprofit organizations and public agencies.

“The programs are still technically operating and the programs themselves haven't been eliminated, if that makes sense, but certain grants funded under the programs have been terminated,” Bruns said.

Local impacts

Nicki Ross works as the executive director for the nonprofit Table to Table, which works to combat food insecurity in Johnson County.

Table to Table has been working with AmeriCorps for about five years, using about three seasonal AmeriCorps members per growing season. Ross said the volunteers collectively would work about 90 hours per week collecting produce left over from farms to be distributed throughout Johnson County.

“We have about 30 farm relationships, and we go harvest produce that's left in the field, things that the farmers aren't going to sell but it's perfectly good to eat, and all of that food gets donated to the food access network,” Ross said. “That program accounts for about almost 60,000 pounds of fresh from the ground produce over the growing season.”

Two months ago, Table to Table learned that its typical three AmeriCorps member workforce would not be returning because of funding cuts. The nonprofit was able to pivot to the Iowa Community Corps program, which is funded through the state, but the 90 hours a week was cut to 20. This week, the nonprofit found out the 20-hour per week role was cut as well, leaving it with no AmeriCorps help.

Ross said without the help, a “significant portion” of the locally-grown produce that would be made available for Iowans facing food insecurity is in jeopardy.

Specifically, she said that the AmeriCorps volunteers helped Table to Table with picking up the produce from their partner farms — a task that isn’t easy for the nonprofit’s full-time staff because it often needs to be done “at the drop of a hat.”

“Food insecurity is a lot higher in summertime because folks don't have their kids in school and are getting summer meals, so it is a significant source of food for folks in Johnson County. Automatically, that's a huge loss,” she said.

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Ross said the organization is looking for local volunteers to make up for the lost help, but it won’t be easy. “Because you're not going to find a volunteer who's going to volunteer for 30 hours a week. That's an AmeriCorps role,” Ross said.

When Marquis Heard graduated from Iowa State University, he wanted work experience and was interested in learning about the nonprofit sector. Heard, 23, worked with Table to Table for three AmeriCorps service terms, totaling 14 months.

Because he left the program in September 2024, Heard wasn’t aware of the cuts to AmeriCorps until Ross told him Thursday.

“It was surprising to hear about (the cuts) especially since AmeriCorps does such good work and a lot of the money that's funded for it goes to great places,” Heard said, who is originally from West Des Moines. “It was a shock.”

Heard said that if he were a part of the AmeriCorps cohort that was either sent home early or was impacted by grant funding cuts, he’d be frustrated.

“With the work that we do, you see the direct benefit of it,“ Heard said, adding that the previous summer he personally coordinated 4,000 pounds of gleaned produce to be redistributed to those in need in Johnson County. ”You see how all that work pays off.“

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com