Food Bank of Iowa, DMARC announce new partnership to forge path to better fight food insecurity

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The leaders of the Food Bank of Iowa and the Des Moines Area Religious Council came together today to announce a new food rescue partnership and shared distribution standards as they work together to fight food insecurity in Polk County.

A list of initiatives the two organizations will undertake together was released during a joint news conference at the Robert D. and Billie Ray Center at Drake University. It marked a step forward in a strained relationship between the two food assistance organizations in recent months over differences in standards in their food distribution networks.

Today’s announcement also followed a meeting leaders of both organizations had with Scott Raecker, executive director of the Ray Center, and Jordan Vernoy, co-owner of Cedar Falls-based See What I Mean Consulting, a discussion that was facilitated after the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and the United Way of Central Iowa stepped forward to help resolve the ongoing dispute.

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Michelle Book, CEO of Food Bank of Iowa, said that despite the confusion of the past several months, the Food Bank and DMARC have continued to keep food on pantry shelves.

“We never took our foot off the pedal,” she said. “That being said, both organizations, Matt and I agree, can do better and we will do better because thousands of people depend on the vital services we provide.”

Book said that she and Unger have had many conversations, and at times have had differences in opinion and “passionate discussion,” but that neither organization had relented in their fight against hunger.

She outlined the organizations’ new initiatives during the news conference. They are:

  • A new agreement that provides equitable distribution of retail food rescued across the DMARC network. According to the agreement, Food Bank of Iowa will continue to manage food donations through its retail partners, while DMARC will pick up, weigh and deliver donated foods to its partner pantries, sharing its data with Food Bank of Iowa.
  • The DMARC-ket south-side food pantry at the DMARC headquarters will become a Food Bank of Iowa partner, aligning its distribution standards with Food Bank of Iowa. DMARC will encourage its other partner pantries to do the same. Food Bank standards include a minimum monthly distribution of one three-day supply of food for every client.
  • The nine DMARC food pantries currently not served by Food Bank of Iowa have been invited to reapply, giving them access to Food Bank of Iowa’s full inventory.

The initiatives are only the beginning, and details must still be worked out, Book said.

“I believe this framework is a new beginning for all of us to proactively and collaboratively address the needs of our food-insecure neighbors,” she said.

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Matt Unger, CEO of DMARC, said the new food rescue partnership with Food Bank of Iowa is “unique and new to our community,” and gives DMARC access to assigned retailers to provide those items being rescued across its entire pantry network, whether those pantries have a relationship with Food Bank of Iowa or not.

“This is important because it will have a broad impact on the items available every day … and help ensure those items are spread across the community in a way that eliminates geographic barriers for food pantry barriers and ensures similar items are available at any and every DMARC network pantry,” Unger said.

DMARC will also encourage pantries not in a partnership with the Food Bank of Iowa to review the agreement and consider becoming a Food Bank of Iowa partner.

Unger said that he, Book and food pantry partners have agreed to meet and discuss challenges that arise.

While communication between DMARC and Food Bank of Iowa is important, addressing the community’s food insecurity needs to be a broader conversation in the community, he said.

“We need that conversation to be communitywide,” Unger said. “It takes all of us, government programs, the nonprofit sector, the business community, all working together to address problems as big as food insecurity.”

Unger and Book both said bringing in Raecker and Vernoy helped advance those conversations that were already happening to create a path forward.

“I think anytime you are in a one-on-one disagreement on any issue, it always helps to have an outside perspective,” he said. “And bringing that outside perspective and allowing Michelle and I the freedom to just share honestly but respectfully with each other really made a big difference. Sometimes you just need a third party to pull you out of it for a minute to be able to find that solution.”

Book and Unger also addressed lessons learned in recent months as the organizations work to find common ground in reaching the common goal of fighting food insecurity.

“I think we believed we had a strong relationship, and I think we learned we needed an even stronger one,” Unger said. “Not just for the success of our own organizations, but to better meet the needs of those folks that we’re trying to provide assistance to.”

Book said, “There have been a lot of lessons learned.

“Top of mind for me is the need to have conversations earlier in the process,” she said. “So we are going to establish a framework for how changes are introduced into the network and how disagreements or problems are addressed.”

She said there have been some “false narratives” in recent months about the circumstances surrounding the dispute between Food Bank of Iowa and DMARC, “and I think much of that could have been resolved had Matt and I had a process in place where we brought these things to the table sooner rather than later.”

Book acknowledged “there has been friction between DMARC and Food Bank of Iowa for decades.”

“We know this in the community,” she said. “This is our opportunity together to end that. To demonstrate to the community that these two great organizations can work together.”

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Michael Crumb

Michael Crumb is a senior staff writer at Business Record. He covers real estate and development and transportation.

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