River Bend Food Bank has been a partner with John Deere for the last 42 years. Last August, the John Deere Foundation pledged to match up to $6,500 of the food bank's donations in a new campaign titled, Plowing a New Path to End Hunger.
Nancy Renkes, President and CEO of the River Bend Food Bank, believes John Deere's match encouraged donors within the community.
"When you have a match like that, you can see just being here today, how that energizes the commuity," Renkes said. "When you have over a hundred donors say, 'You know what, I'm going to help you meet that match.' There's something about knowing, if I write a check for $100, that it immediately turns into $200. And so, the match was so instrumental in helping us raise this money."
In total, the fundraising campiagn raised $1.6 million. Renkes said this money allowed the food bank to purchase more food for the community than ever before.
"Our food donations while they are amazing, the generosity of our food donors, they're not enough to keep up. And so, we're purchasing more food than we ever had," Renkes said. "And so, for us, this campaign allowed us to raise the money we needed to be able to purchase the food for at least the next year. So, we know hungry people will have access to food."
The River Bend Food Bank now has the funding it needs to feed residents of Scott, Rock Isalnd, and Dubuque communites for the next year.