A 16-year-old Nevada nonprofit will continue serving free meals despite recently losing access to a grant-funded staffer.
Nevada Food at First offers free meals on Monday and Thursday evenings. Besides Nevada, volunteers serve Colo, Fernald, Maxwell, McCallsburg and Zearing.
The nonprofit community organization was about to hire a new Rural Iowa AmeriCorps member when it received notice that its grant had been terminated, bringing the search to a halt.
The Rural Iowa AmeriCorps member was intended to provide direct support to help increase the accessibility of nutritious food to households and sustain Nevada Food at First’s partnerships.
The AmeriCorps member would have served an average of 20 hours per week for 24 weeks beginning June 2.
Federal funding was cut on April 15 for 568 AmeriCrops members at more than 15 Iowa nonprofit, faith-based and community organizations, according to a Des Moines Register report.
Funding loss was shared in an April email
Nevada Food at First’s AmeriCorps termination was received in email on April 29. Community Meal Coordinator Barb Mittman said the unexpected news immediately disrupted the organization’s plans to expand its offerings.
“Nevada Food at First leadership is disappointed that we will not have the opportunity to further develop, expand, and sustain our collaborative food access system in rural eastern Story County,” Mittman said. “A dedicated group of retailers, food rescue volunteers and local school and community pantry leaders currently support this work, but we will lose the intentional coordinating, managing and training components of this position, and miss the prospect of building relationships that promote nutritional security.”
The loss of funds will not directly impact the Nevada Food at First free carry-out meal program, Mittman said. However, the non-profit must rely more heavily on the Nevada community for volunteers.
AmeriCorps member would have received over $6,000
Funds were initially committed to the Rural Iowa AmeriCorps program from Sept. 1, 2024, through Nov. 14, 2025.
The Rural Iowa AmeriCorps Program grant would have provided a living allowance of $6,075 for the AmeriCorps member hosted by Nevada Food at First. The AmeriCorps member would also have received a Segal Education Award of about $1,956 from the National Service Trust once their work was finished.
Non-profit has provided free meals for 16 years
Nevada Food at First was founded in 2009 and has been recognized as a public 501(c)(3) charity since May 2023.
Volunteers prepare, pack and deliver meals to Neighborhood Meal Stops twice a week.
Meals can be ordered on the non-profit’s website, and they are available to anyone.
The free carry-out meals can be picked up at Nevada First United Methodist Church and at 14 other locations in Nevada, Colo, Maxwell, McCallsburg, and Zearing. In 2024, more than 400 households received 34,797 meals.
Nevada Food at First volunteers also gather food from several retail partners. More than 106,636 pounds of food were prepared for free meals at the non-profit’s “Pop-Up Pantry” in 2024. The meals were distributed to six Story County schools and community pantries.
Nevada Food at First is not connected to Food at First in Ames.
Interested volunteers can contact Nevada Food at First at 515-215-3904 or foodatfirstnevadaia@gmail.com.
Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Nevada nonprofit continues serving community despite loss of AmeriCorps grant
Reporting by Celia Brocker, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
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