10/09/2026
On Wednesday, Food at First hit the road for advocacy and impactful networking🚗💪
First, thanks to the Iowa Hunger Coalition and Coralville Community Food Pantry, we joined food access partners from Johnson, Linn, and Scott County for a roundtable with Iowa gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand (D).
Together we discussed rising costs, a shrinking public safety net, and the growing gap food pantries are being asked to fill. Together, we advocated for keeping Iowa in Summer EBT and expanding access to universal free school meals- programs with bi- partisan support. (According to figures shared by the Food Bank of Iowa, universal school meals are supported by 60% of Republicans, 88% of Independents, and 92% of Democrats.) We are encouraged to hear Mr. Sand's commitment as feeding children is a shared value we can build on!
Thank you to host, John Boller and our fellow participants: Iowa Hunger Coalition, Coralville Community Food Pantry, , Southeast Linn Community Center, , Table to Table, , , and .
Additionally, we took the opportunity to visit our friends at North Liberty Community Pantry for a tour of their new building and talked everything from the variety of technology they use throughout to enhance guest experience to kale they grow in their garden🌱
We’ll keep bringing our neighbors’ experiences to the table and advocating for reliable access to food. Please note- Food at First's participation focused on hunger solutions and does not constitute a political endorsement.
