Join us for a look back on how our community united this year to deliver nourishing food and hope in a year of unprecedented challenges and record-breaking success. Through it all, thank you for standing with River Bend Food Bank to ensure no one goes hungry.
JANUARY
We kicked off the year with a donation of 6,000+ pounds of ground pork to River Bend Food Bank. The Illinois Pork Producers Association initially donated 4,400 pounds. Thanks to IPPA’s partnership with the John Deere Classic and 2,315 birdies, that total was boosted to 6,715 pounds.
FEBRUARY
BITCO employees gathered at River Bend Food Bank for an “All Hands on Deck” volunteer packing event. For “All Hands on Deck,” organizations contribute $10,000 to purchase food and packing materials and then employees join for a team building event to create 300+ meal boxes to distribute to local families.
River Bend Food Bank partnered with 21 organizations in 2025 for “All Hands on Deck,” with plans to expand that number in 2026.
MARCH
More than 500 people attended the March 27, 2025, Women Fighting Hunger event, raising $100,000+ for hunger-relief. The next Women Fighting Hunger event is March 26, featuring the former head coach of the Iowa Hawkeye’s women’s basketball program Lisa Bluder.
APRIL
This group from Empowering Abilities is part of the nearly 3,000 volunteers who help River Bend Food Bank sort, stock and provide food to our 400+ hunger-relief partners. Volunteers contributed about 12,000 hours during 2025, the equivalent of $284,715 in value of time.
MAY
River Bend Food Bank Davenport staff gathered for a volunteer event to sort food and clean the grounds around the warehouse. River Bend Food Bank employs about 45 staff across three locations to serve its 23-county service area.
JUNE
In anticipation of deep cuts to SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid, Quad Cities nonprofit leaders gathered at the June 30 Nonprofit Legislative Roundtable at River Bend Food Bank. River Bend President & CEO Chris Ford shared the importance of SNAP for individuals, farmers and grocery retailers. He also framed the consequences of SNAP cuts.
“This is being decided at the federal government,” he said. “But the implications from SNAP are going to be passed down to the state legislators and ultimately, our state legislators are going to be the ones to have the tough decisions to make.”
JULY
River Bend Food Bank staff, partners and volunteers undertook the major challenge of distributing thousands of food boxes to kids during summer break. The state-funded Healthy Kids Iowa program provided one box of food per child to eligible families in June, July and August.
River Bend served 6,500 children through Healthy Kids Iowa over three months, with 12,600 kits distributed.
AUGUST
Partnerships Director Nikki Habben and her team launched Phase One of the Backpack Program to school pantry transition, a strategic change in order to provide five times more meals to school kids and their families.
“It provides food to sustain the whole family,” Habben said. “School Pantries may also offer fresh produce, meat or frozen items to families – all at a significant cost savings. The new model means we can serve more food, more often to more people in a way that works most effectively with the Food Bank.”
SEPTEMBER
Community supporters gathered Sept. 15 at IHMVCU’s headquarters for the launch of Million Meals Match – an initiative inviting businesses and community members to join the students of Student Hunger Drive to contribute funds to addressing rising food insecurity in our region.
“Annually thousands of students collect funds and food as part of the Student Hunger Drive and Million Meals Match is a way Quad Cities’ leaders and businesses can stand alongside those dedicated students,” said Jayna Gallagher, River Bend community engagement manager who led this year’s Student Hunger Drive and Million Meals Match campaigns.
OCTOBER
River Bend Food Bank Board Member Amy Jones, SNAP Outreach manager Lisa Spitler and mom of two Ashley Wells shared the importance of SNAP at the Oct. 28 SNAP Spotlight event. The 43-day government shutdown caused hardship for SNAP recipients and dealt a blow to food and cash reserves for food banks across the country.
NOVEMBER
The Nov. 6 Student Hunger Drive Finale Rally revealed the 39th annual event raised a record-breaking 3,038,599 meals. That grand total included 926,393 meals raised by the 16 Quad-Cities area high schools participating in this year’s drive plus 2,112,206 meals raised by the inaugural Million Meals Match initiative.
“Delivering food in these challenging times is difficult,” Chris Ford said. “We’ve received incredible support from our community who have raised their voices and their hands to help. What these students and our Million Meals Match supporters deliver right now is not just hunger-relief, it is light and inspiration for the staff, volunteers and donors who unite to provide critical food for our community.”
DECEMBER
River Bend Food Bank distributed more than 20 million pounds of food, or 15.5 million meals, in 2025 with the help of 400+ hunger-relief partners. The fall government shutdown and SNAP freeze spurred several emergency funding initiatives – including the Quad Cities Community Foundation Hunger Relief Match, which surpassed its goal by raising over $600,000. River Bend deployed emergency funds to provide six million meals at no cost to partners and offered extended holiday hours at its NorthPark and SouthPark pantries.
We start the new year with gratitude because of your support of River Bend Food Bank. We enter 2026 facing profound challenges as H.R.1 ushers in the largest overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in its 60-year history. It is strong community support that sustains River Bend Food Bank’s network of staff, hunger-relief partners and volunteers as we continue to deliver on the mission of feeding our neighbors.
To our hunger-relief partners, volunteers, donors and community supporters. Here’s how
you can continue to support River Bend Food Bank in 2026:
- Give funds: riverbendfoodbank.org/donate/
- Give time: riverbendfoodbank.org/volunteer/
- Give most-needed food items: Canned meats, canned stews and chili, peanut butter,
canned soups, canned tuna and chicken, canned vegetables and fruits.