Retired Jefferson attorney Tom Polking, who now lives in Des Moines, checked two things off his “to-do” list when he visited Jefferson last week.
Polking talked with the Jefferson Rotary Club about his volunteer work for the Food Bank of Iowa. He explained that when he and his wife Karen moved to Des Moines they planned to be active members of the community, as they were in Jefferson, but they considered very carefully where they’d place their focus.
Tom was drawn to the Food Bank of Iowa in part because he’s impressed with the work of president and CEO Michelle Book, a Jefferson High School graduate.
The Food Bank of Iowa serves 55 central and southeastern Iowa counties, stretching from Missouri to Minnesota. Polking’s current project is to visit 50 of those counties, speaking with community groups telling them about the Food Bank and inviting them to tour the warehouse facility on the east side of Des Moines. That was one purpose of his visit with the Rotary Club.
His second purpose was to drop off a donation to the Greene County Christian Action Resource Center. Dianne Blackmer, coordinator of the ARC, accepted a check for $1,000. The donation was from a trust fund established by one of Polking’s legal clients, with Karen Polking as a trustee for the fund.
Blackmer said half the donation will be used to purchase food. The ARC purchases food from the Food Bank of Iowa at a typical cost of 18 cents per pound. The other half will go into a building fund. The ARC board is gearing up for a capital campaign for a new location.
