Q&A: Longtime food pantry leader prepares to hand over reins

Tina DuBois, outgoing executive director of the North Liberty Community Food Pantry, and Kaila Rome, incoming executive director, were asked about successes at the food pantry, as well as plans for the future.

Tina, how long have you been here?

DuBois: Well I originally started as a student in 2005, and then I became a staff person in 2008. There was no paid staff prior to that.

How many do you serve now?

DuBois: It's usually between 200 and 300 families a month.

What do you think has changed in the past 11 years?

DuBois: The community of North Liberty has dramatically changed. In 2000, there were 5,000 people and they just finished this special census that there's over 18,000.

Certainly in 2008, end of 2008 and 2009 is when the Great Recession happened, and we definitely saw spikes in services.

Has that ebbed at all?

DuBois: Between 2014-15 we actually were almost flat. So yes, it's leveled out.

What are things you've started here that you really are proud of?

DuBois: When I came as a student, we knew the space that they had built at that point was not sufficient. It was about 800 square feet. And we talked for many years about, 'What are we going to do to make the space functional?'

We raised $265,00 and ...

it was about two years from the time we started fundraising to the time we moved into the building. So that's a big success.

I don't think I understood it at the time, I understand much better now, that not having a mortgage means we can do so much more service. We don't have any debt and we can do a lot more because of that.

Last year we kicked off the Gardening for Health project, which (includes) the Growing Together Garden here, which is a teaching garden. It's a lot of programming around helping people to eat healthy, and hopefully bringing together from all sectors of the community, not just families we serve at the pantry. I think that's been very successful.

What will you miss the most?

DuBois: I'll miss the people the most — the families that we serve, the volunteers, the community. I'll miss the type of interaction that I have with the community.

Do you plan to still volunteer here?

DuBois: Probably not. I think I've been here a long time and there's a lot of me here, down to the coffee mugs. And I think for Kaila, and for the pantry itself, I need to not be here. I think that she needs to find her space and the pantry needs to move on without me being involved.

I think it's time for the next phase.

Kaila, what drew you to apply to the North Liberty pantry?

Rome: I was previously at a pantry and I loved the work I did. I thought this job was written for me, and this would be a perfect place to set my roots and grow.

It was also a challenge because there are things that are very different from what I'm used to like the garden and the educational programming, I thought it was really innovative and that was something that I wanted to learn more about, figure out how that works and why it works so well.

It's a really successful place already, so I knew I wasn't walking into something that needed fixing up.

What's your initial goal.

Rome: For right now, maintenance. Like (Tina) said, they just moved into this building (in 2013), that takes a while to transition and then they just started the garden, that takes a while to get set, what programs work, which don't.

There's a couple smaller goals like increasing the amount of fresh produce we want to give out to families, increasing education opportunities and participation. And the basics of non-profits — keeping volunteers engaged, families happy, providing the highest quality of service you can.

How has the transition period gone?

Rome: I think really well. It's a really unique opportunity, not everyone gets to train with the previous director. Tina put a lot of thought into the transition period, the order in which things get handed over, I think it's been smooth for the volunteers, for the staff.

It was a little fast and furious when we can in, we were like, 'OK, here's all the things that we have to cover, let's get it all done,' and it's starting to even out, and we're just looking forward to not scrambling.