Matthew 25’s Cultivate Hope Corner Store in Cedar Rapids receives $300,000 grant

CEDAR RAPIDS — A $300,000 grant will support the nonprofit Cultivate Hope Corner Store operated by Matthew 25, fueling its mission of offering healthy food in a Cedar Rapids neighborhood where affordable, nutritious food options were scarce.

Matthew 25 has received a grant from the John and Cindy Family Foundation for $300,000 to be paid out over three years to support the store, located at 604 Ellis Blvd. NW in Cedar Rapids, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The corner store, situated in Cedar Rapids’ Northwest Neighborhood that was devastated by the 2008 flood, looks to break barriers to healthy eating. It opened in April 2022 in a part of the city that was classified as a food desert, where little fresh produce and healthy food was available.

“One thing we want to start doing through the foundation is to fund solutions instead of just continuing to kick the can down the road,” said John Bloomhall of the John and Cindy Family Foundation in a statement. “There (are) so many challenges people are facing in their lives, and sometimes it’s hard to reconcile and solve these challenges. With the Cultivate Hope Corner Store, (affordable) food is a good solution to the challenge of hunger.”

Clint Twedt-Ball, Matthew 25’s executive director, said the organization’s nearby urban farm — created in 2012 — will produce about $25,000 worth of food that goes out into the neighborhood every year. This store sells that amount in about two-and-a-half weeks, which has empowered Matthew 25 to make a difference in eliminating a food desert.

“Now everybody has access 72 hours a week to fresh, healthy local food,” Twedt-Ball said. “They have a place where they can come and gather and be in community with each other. You can connect with local providers of food that are stocked here and not stocked in any other store in the area.”

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Iowa recently passed the 35% obesity rate — making it one of the most obese states in the country. Matthew 25 reported that core Cedar Rapids neighborhoods fare worse, with childhood obesity over the 50% mark among fifth-graders in the center of the city.

People may face hurdles to accessing healthy food because of affordability, a lack of convenient or nearby stores or they don’t know about how to cook healthy meals.

The store looks to address these barriers to healthy eating by providing fresh produce, meat, dairy, frozen and nonperishables, as well as healthy pre-prepared Good Meals to Go for $5 or less, daily lunch and soup specials, rotisserie chicken and local vendor products.

A free produce section also allows shoppers in need to add fresh food to their meals at no cost. Those who are able may donate at the register to support this section.

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Mark Elias, senior Cultivate Hope director, said people of all income levels can shop at the store and support its mission by doing even just some of their weekly shopping there.

“It still helps us, it helps the other people because it gives us the ability to continue to keep ordering fresh products and have things in all the time,” Elias said.

Now that the store has been operational for some time, Elias said Matthew 25’s education coordinator will start to put more of a focus on educating people on nutrition and how to use available foods for certain meals through signage or group sessions.

Since the store opened, the store has worked to add more parking spots in the area and worked with the community to navigate road construction projects. The city of Cedar Rapids recently finished building roundabouts where Ellis Boulevard intersects with E and F avenues NW. And crews finished a project to extend Sixth Street NW to connecting it to Ellis Boulevard at E Avenue NW.

Twedt-Ball said the store has seen fewer customers since the new street connection opened last month, seemingly in part because parking may feel more hazardous to shoppers. Parking is available along E Avenue NW, outside the store on Ellis Boulevard NW and across the store in marked spots at Double Z Bar and Grill.

It typically takes a business three years to gain the customer base needed to support it, Twedt-Ball said, so this grant will be key to helping Matthew 25 navigate such challenges moving forward.

“It, I hope, is a signal to people that we’re all called to help our neighbors,” Twedt-Ball said. “It’s a fairly simple, really impactful way to help your neighbors to say, ‘I want to make sure that at this Corner Store, there’s fresh produce available.’ From my perspective, people have a better chance of living up to their God-given potential if they’re putting good food in their bodies.”

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