Volunteers harvest hundreds of pounds of vegetables to be distributed across Linn County

Nearly 400,000 people in Iowa go to bed hungry each night, and many of them are children, according to the nonprofit Feeding America.

But another organization in Linn County is working to fight hunger locally, and it’s relying on partnerships with other community members to do it.

Feed Iowa First is currently partnered up with more than 20 churches and businesses in the Linn County area.

One of the ways these partnerships work is with the organization’s “Grow Don’t Mow” program, in which Feed Iowa First provides seeds and supplies, and then it’s up to the group they’re working with to take care of the crops on their own land.

On Sunday, members of Faith Lutheran Church in Marion saw that hard work come to fruition, harvesting hundreds of pounds of potatoes, along with broccoli, collards, cauliflower and more.

All the produce will be washed and organized this Tuesday, and then it’ll be distributed in the community Wednesday and Thursday.

“To be able to work with our community to grow vegetables and hand those out to people that need some fresh, healthy food is really good, but then we’re also teaching the people in these communities about fresh, healthy food and how to grow it themselves,” said August Stolba of Feed Iowa First.

Volunteers later capped off their harvesting with a barbeque dinner at the church.

Feed Iowa First said it’ll need help getting Sunday’s harvest ready to be distributed this week. Anyone who wants to volunteer can call the organization at 319-775-0149.