Feeding more people, Green Square Meals faces jump in costs

CEDAR RAPIDS - The regulars, and then some, followed Green Square Meals to its new location more than two years ago. The program's volunteers are cooking and serving more hot dinners than ever as they face a new financial challenge.

"Right now, it's a little tight," said John Locher, Green Square Meals president. "We've got $500 in the bank."

That would be a little more than enough to cover the program's biggest ongoing cost, a utility bill that usually runs about $400 a month. But when Witwer Senior Center, another tenant in the Ecumenical Community Center at 605 Second Ave. SE, stops using the same kitchen to prepare meals for its own programs, Green Square will assume responsibility for the entire utility bill.

Locher expects the bill, now about $2,000 a month, to come down as the kitchen sees less use, but he's still trying to get a handle on how much.

“We're trying to quantify that," he said. "It's been so simple.”

Witwer's change comes Oct. 1, when the family service organization Horizons takes over preparation of about 550 meals a day for Meals on Wheels, Head Start, and delivery to senior nutrition sites around Linn County.

Witwer clients will continue to dine at the Ecumenical center on hot lunches now delivered by Horizons, and the center will continue to conduct its social, educational, and leisure programs there, Witwer director Myrt Bowers said.

"It's kind of a major change for Green Square, because we've shared it since we've opened" in February 2009, Bowers said.

Green Square Meals leases the building from the Ecumenical Community Center for $1 a year. Witwer subleases from Green Square for its share of the utility costs.

"We were there certainly more hours, we assumed a higher percentage of the occupancy, utilities, that sort of thing," said Bowers.

“We're only here three hours a day," said Maggie Hotz, Green Square kitchen manager and the group's only paid employee. "(Costs) should go down, but we're still hurting because we're used to having them in here paying a percentage."

Bowers and Locher agree it will take a few months before both agencies have an idea of costs under the new arrangement.

Meanwhile, Green Square Meals continues to serve about 100 meals a day, up from about 80 at its former site in a 1960s-era building in Greene Square Park. The organization had agreed to leave the building, which the city wanted to demolish, before the June 2008 flood. The building was torn down earlier this year.

Green Square Meals has an annual budget of about $30,000, according to Locher. That's enough to pay Hotz's salary, those utility bills, and a few other expenses. Most of the food and all of the labor is donated - Hotz depends on a rotation of volunteers from about 20 area churches to help prepare and clean up after each day's meal, served from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The group receives no government money, and has never made a public appeal for donations because "we've never needed to," Locher said.

"We're going to be here," he said. "We're going to find a way. We're not going anywhere.”

Donations may be dropped off at the Ecumenical Community Center, or mailed to Post Office Box 5303, Cedar Rapids 52406.

For more information on donating or volunteering, call (319)365-6652.

[mqMap align="center" key="fSz9" width="485" height="292" src="http://www.mapquest.com/embed?icid=mqdist_mb_wp&c=fSz9&maptype=map&zoom=12¢er=41.98055060837576,-91.66331499999998&projection=sm&showScale=false"/>