Empty Bowls gives away $9,500 to local food-related programs

(Left to right): Decorah Lutheran Food Pantry's Cindy Hansmeier, 1st Lutheran Food Pantry's Carolyn Flaskerud, Decorah Community Meal's Ken Amdahl, Farmer's Market Food Voucher Program's Barb Dale and NEIPJC staffer Erin Ryan. (Not pictured): Kid's Lunch Club and the Backpack Program representative Laura Arnold.

Over 450 individuals attended the "Empty Bowls" event in April and helped to raise $9,564.60.  Now the Northeast Iowa Peace & Justice Center Board of Directors has decided how to distribute those funds:
 
--$2,500 will go to First Lutheran food pantry, where currently over 60 volunteers serve more than 600 monthly clients from many different towns and backgrounds.

--$2,500 will go to the Decorah Lutheran food pantry, which serves over 300 families.

--$2,000 will go to the Farmers Market Voucher Program, which gives vouchers that may be exchanged for vegetables, fruits, eggs, honey, meat and starter vegetable plants.

--$1,000 will go to the Decorah Community Meal, which provides a meal on the first and third Thursday of each month at First Lutheran Church.

--$1,000 will go to the Kid's Lunch Program, which is a new community summer program serving up grab and go lunches for Decorah area kids.

--$500 will go to the Backpack Program, a free program that provides kid-friendly, non-perishable food for students most in-need, to eat over weekends and breaks when school meals are not available and there may be little or no food to eat.

--The remainder of $64.60 will be held over to defray costs of advertising next year.