Luther College starts "Cafeteria to Community" program

A new program at Luther College is designed to help get food to those who need it in Northeast Iowa.  

Through Luther's new "Cafeteria to Community" program, student volunteers work with dining services staff to package food into containers that are labeled and then delivered to the First Lutheran Church's Food Pantry twice weekly. Food donations vary by week but include such items as soup, main entrees, homemade pasta sauce, vegetables and salads from Luther's cafeteria.

Luther is also using its contacts with local farmers to ensure that donations will often contain local ingredients.  Also, the temperatures and dates of the donated food are carefully monitored by the kitchen staff to ensure the food is not only delicious, but safe.

Food is packaged during the evening on Mondays and Wednesdays.  To date, 38 students volunteers have packaged a total of 748 containers totaling 1,124 pounds of food.

The program is a good fit for anybody with a passion for community service, including Decorah community members. Those interested in volunteering should visit the Luther College Sustainability website
and submit the volunteer sign-up form.

Dave Carlson helps unpack at First Lutheran Food Pantry