Volunteers Needed for ICCSD Meal Delivery to South District Residents

Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity is working together with the South District Neighborhood Association (SDNA) to deliver Iowa City Community School District school meals to children's homes in the South District.      
 
This is a concerted effort between the SDNA and IVHFH to ensure that all children living in the South District have access to breakfast and lunch combined, delivered at their door step.
 
Soon after the school year started in the Fall of 2020, the ICCSD rolled out a free Grab & Go Meal Program for all children enrolled in the public school district of Iowa City.

Facing uncertainty, whether it is safe for children to return to a hybrid system, in January 2021, The South District Neighborhood Association and their President Angie Jordan started regular conversations with many parents in the South District to assess the current situation. They concluded that, while a majority of children in the SD were still enrolled in 100% online learning from home, many did not have the facility to pick up their meals directly from their school on a daily basis.
 
In the same month of January 2021, Angie Jordan gathered a list of interested families and started driving school meals from SE Junior High directly to families in need. Shortly after, IVHFH joined efforts with the SDNA to help support the newly created Grab & Go lunch home delivery program and expanded to more families in need living in the South District.
 
Since then, we have seen an amazing response from our families in the South District, as we grew from driving and delivering 26 to 97 meals day in a matter of weeks. The positive feedback from families in the SD has been very humbling as we continue to welcome new families to join our list of deliveries every day. As more families are showing interest and requesting to be included in our meal distribution program, we are adding 8 new families per week and delivering 25 added meals a week, on average.
 
Moving forward, we are quickly approaching the 100 meals a day threshold, and we are in need of more volunteer drivers to continue to deliver those meals on a daily basis, so we can continue to expand while making sure every meal gets delivered on time every day of the week.
 
Those interested in helping the SDNA and IVHFH with this continuous effort to help feed more home-schooled children in the SD, can sign up for any daily shifts still available, any weekdays this Winter and Spring of 2021. You can sign up here or log on to your volunteer account on United Way volunteer opportunities and sign up here. 

For more information, please visit the SDNA Facebook page or contact the SDNA Grab & Go Lunches Delivery Program Coordinator for the South District at [email protected].
 
We look forward to working with you to provide relief and happiness to children all over the South District neighborhood.

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