Volunteer Spotlight: Joan Fall
For retired teacher Joan Fall, giving back runs in the family.
“My family is a family of volunteers, so it’s in my DNA,” she said. “But I did not know about the food bank and what they did. I would pass it and hear about it, but I never knew what went on in here.”
That changed after she saw friends posting on social media about their experiences at Food Bank of Iowa in Ottumwa. “It’s like, that sounds like fun,” she said. “So, I got a bunch of other teachers, and we signed up for a day.”
Joan appreciates the flexibility. “You can pick your own time and your own day. And you can do evening and morning, afternoon. And I think there’s even a Saturday sometimes,” she said. “It feels really, really good to give back to the community.”
The work has also opened her eyes to hunger in Iowa. “I did not know about the food insecurity that was here in Iowa until I started working here,” she said. “I’m not seeing it directly now, but I know that it exists. And the kids that come to school hungry—it’s kind of scary when summer comes because they don’t know where their next meal is going to come from.”