Fairfield Methodist Church plans benefit concert for food bank

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield First United Methodist Church and the Food Bank of Iowa are putting on a benefit concert Friday, April 26 at the Walton Club in Fairfield.

The band “Full House” will perform hits from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s at 7:30 p.m. The concert is a free will donation, and proceeds will go to MANNA for Fairfield, an acronym that stands for Meeting Ageless Nutritional Needs Abundantly. Checks can be made out to First United Methodist Church with “MANNA” in the memo line.

The Walton Club will be open for patrons to purchase food and drink during the fundraiser. The Walton Club is not charging MANNA to use its facility, and the band is playing for free, too. Full House consists of local musicians John Schirmer, Jim Steinbeck, Myron Gookin and Steve Lamb. The band hasn’t performed for the public very much, but they didn’t hesitate to volunteer their services when members of MANNA approached them about supporting this worthy cause.

Fairfield First United Methodist Church began its program to provide food to the elderly and disabled in June 2020. Former Methodist Church pastor Beth Harbaugh told The Union at the time that the program was created to serve people who were falling through the cracks, people who couldn’t leave their homes or who were not strong enough to carry boxes from a food pantry.

In the nearly four years since then, the Methodist Church and Food Bank of Iowa have partnered to gather non-perishable items such as soups, canned fruit, peanut butter, rice, crackers, vegetables and lots of other cooking supplies.

Steve Ernst, a Methodist Church parishioner who heads the program, said these food boxes are delivered to residents on a monthly basis, mostly in Fairfield but also some in neighboring towns such as Batavia, Keosauqua, Douds, Milton, Hillsboro, Libertyville and Sigourney. Deliveries are made on the first Tuesday of the month, and this month the group served 227 individuals in 114 households.

Ernst said the amount of food the church is delivering each month has grown substantially in the last four years, from 2,490 pounds of food in August 2020 to 4,280 pounds this April. The cost of food has also risen, from just 5 cents per pound in 2020 to 12 cents per pound today, which comes to $530 per month.

“The primary cost for this Ministry is the cost of food – all of our staff and manpower are volunteer,” Ernst said. “Routinely, 25 to 50 volunteers have served this Food Bank Ministry’s monthly needs.”

Ernst said the group has relied on grants, such as a nearly $3,000 COVID relief grant from the federal government in 2021, and money from the church to operate.

“The church donations have been outstanding,” Ernst said.

Ernst said the Ministry has received very generous grants from the Greater Jefferson County Foundation.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com