Cedar Rapids meal site aims to soften blow from a lost grocery store

Meghan Dittmar hands out milk and plastic grocery bags of food in the basement of Johnson STEAM Academy, a free meal site. There are 27 such sites across Cedar Rapids, ten of them in school buildings. But the basement at Johnson is the only one that serves both children and adults.

“It’s been really important since the Hy-Vee closed,” Dittmar said.

Over the summer, West Des Moines-based grocery chain Hy-Vee closed three stores in Waterloo, Davenport and Cedar Rapids. A spokesperson said the locations did not meet financial expectations. Leaders in Cedar Rapids are actively working on a replacement at the intersection of 1st Avenue and 16th Street.

The closed location is right outside the Wellington Heights neighborhood and has created a challenge for residents needing groceries and a pharmacy.

As a stopgap measure, Linn County, the City of Cedar Rapids and Teamsters Local 238 bootstrapped funding to open the meal site inside Johnson. The school is centrally located in the neighborhood.

In the first week, Dittmar says relatively few people were coming in. She hopes outreach will increase the traffic.

“We're really hoping more of the community comes out and eats the foods here. We know the need is here. We just need to get the people here,” Dittmar said.

Eric Gutschmidt, president of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association, says he was proud of local leaders for putting the funding to work during an emergency.

“Some folks would mistake this as being a free market issue. And I don't think that it is. I do think that the government, and we the people, have a responsibility for ourselves, for each other and for our neighbors. And I think that’s what this is really about,” he said.

Until Aug. 16, people of all ages can come by for a free breakfast and lunch. The site does not require any verification of need or documentation of residence. Minors are required to eat the meal on-site. The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) has also provided meal boxes with shelf-stable staples.

Johnson STEAM Academy is located at 355 18th St SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403.