God's Work, Our Hands

On the occasion of God's Work, Our Hands Sunday this year, Kris Tucker offers this state of the pantry report.

Zion’s food pantry ministry began in 2006 to address food insecurity and hunger in our community. The pantry is open Mondays and Thursday from 3:30 to 5:00. We serve anyone in the Iowa Quad Cities. We’re an emergency food pantry, providing families and individuals with enough food for three days. Thanks to generous donations, we also provide hygiene products such as toilet paper, soap, dishwashing detergent, and laundry pods. Ours is a client choice pantry where people select the foods that they know their families will eat, thus cutting down on waste. Clients can access the pantry every 4 weeks and select food based on the size of their household. Except for a brief closure during Covid, Zion has faithfully carried out this ministry for 19 years.

Our food comes from various sources. We purchase the bulk of our food from River Bend Foodbank. As the price of food rises, we’ve been fortunate to develop a relationship with Food Rescue, an organization that connects us to donations from Walmart, Starbucks, Hy-Vee, and Kwik Star. This has helped us stay within budget.

Zion’s Food Pantry depends on a team of dedicated volunteers serving many hours. Included in the many opportunities for all who would like to be a part of this ministry are helping people check in, shopping and stocking shelves during pantry operating hours, accepting and organizing food donations, and picking up and organizing food orders from the Foodbank.

Thank you, Zion, for your faithful support to our Food Pantry ministry!