COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — Volunteers who stock a community fridge at Timothy Lutheran Church say they give away more than 1,000 pounds of food a week — and that does not count additional items dropped off by neighbors.
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Timothy Lutheran Church hosts the first of four community refrigerators planned and supplied by Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue. The fridges are placed where neighbors can access them directly.
Volunteers Nancy Ruffcorn and Melissa DeLong say a full fridge empties in as little as two to three hours after the driver from Saving Grace makes the one-a-week delivery.
Once the fridge was stocked on Thursday, a family with a young child, a couple, and a Vietnam veteran with cancer were among those who showed up in need of a meal. Ruffcorn said demand has increased after a food pantry moved out of the church's West End neighborhood.
"I was naive and I thought, 'Well, if there's 12 food pantries in town why is anybody hungry?' And then you realize, 'Well, I don't have a car so how do I get to the food pantry across town?'" Ruffcorn said, explaining some of the barriers neighbors face.
Saving Grace CEO Lenli Corbett Kountze told KMTV roughly 120,000 people in the metro area are food insecure, a number she says has increased over the last few years, even as large amounts of food go to waste.
"So, the whole idea is, food should feed people and not landfills." Corbett Kountze said.
Melissa DeLong is part of a local chapter of Indivisible, which also partners on the project, and says volunteers have learned not to judge how much food someone takes.
"You see people come up and they have maybe two bag fulls but you don't know how many people are in their home" DeLong said.
Sometimes one neighbor picks up food for multiple households, according to Ruffcorn and DeLong.
All Care Health Center CEO Joel Dougherty said he is looking forward to the next fridge being installed at his clinic: "It's hard to focus on longer term problems when you're having trouble meeting your basic needs and we think food is the most basic of all the needs."
The project also relies on community support and accepts donations of garden vegetables and even leftovers.
"Some people just see their neighbors in distress and they bring their surplus and I find that really heartwarming," Ruffcorn said.
Look for more information here: CBFRIDGES.ORG
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