Johnson County Crisis Center reaches warehouse goal, still seeks donations for annual campaign

IOWA CITY - While the Crisis Center of Johnson County has reached its fundraising goal for a food bank expansion, center officials worry its capital campaign has caused a slowdown in December giving to the annual campaign.

As of Friday, the organization had raised about $30,000 of its $235,000 December goal, said Sara Sedlacek, center communications and development director. Funds raised in the last month of the year typically amount to about one-third of the center's total annual revenue.

'That's significantly less than what we are usually at at this time,” she said. 'We're definitely feeling the effects of the capital campaign.

'Things are much slower than they typically are right now. We assume it's because the warehouse campaign just ended.”

Sedlacek said it's not unusual for a capital campaign to eat into annual fundraising efforts. But she noted those funds help maintain the center's programing.

The funds support groceries for more than 12,500 people and nearly 26,000 crisis intervention contacts - at least 10,000 of which were suicide-related - a Friday release stated.

The center's Mobile Crisis Outreach Program, which launched in early 2015 and provides in-person counseling to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, has grown from about a dozen dispatches per month to nearly 50 over that same amount of time.

'We still have to have that general operating money to continue to serve our clients. We still have to be able to pay our salaries and pay the phone bill so our crisis line doesn't shut down, and still have to be able to purchase food to supplement that which is donated, and we still have to go on serving the community, regardless of what's happening to the warehouse,” she said. 'We hope the community, which they always do, steps up.”

As for the warehouse project, Carly Matthew, Crisis Center communications coordinator, said the center's expansion goal was met on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28.

With $50,000 raised - and a $45,000 match by the University of Iowa Community Credit Union - work on the expansion is expected to begin in early March.

The work will create room for 15 to 20 additional pallets of food, is expected to begin in early March. The space also would include an expanded food repacking room, cooler storage for fresh produce, a 24-hour donation drop-off and an additional restroom.

Matthew said the expansion will help manage close to 15 years of growth in clientele.

The center's food warehouse served about 350 families per week when it was built in 2003. Not it serves more than 1,000 families each week.

'It's crowded. We sometimes have to turn away donations that people would love to give to us, a lot of fresh foods and things like that,” Matthew said.

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