Grinnell College Museum of Art Receives Grant from the Poweshiek Community Alliance to Support Food Security Program for Children in Collaboration with Local Community Partners

Tilly Woodward, curator of academic and community outreach at the Grinnell College Museum of Art (GCMoA), has received a grant of $2000 from the Poweshiek Community Alliance to support a project called "Read It/See It/Make It/Eat it: Storytime Art in the Park with Iowa Kitchen & Middle Way Farm." 

This grant will support a program on food security as part of the Storytime Art in the Park program. Storytime Art in the Park is a collaboration between Drake Community Library and GCMoA that provides eight weeks of free arts and literacy summer programming to children throughout the Grinnell community every year. The program has been running for 15 years and serves 25-80 children per session. 

GCMoA and the Drake Library will partner with Kamal Hammouda of Iowa Kitchen and Jordan Scheibel of Middle Way Farm to provide free locally sourced meals, produce and seeding plants reflecting different cultural practices. Hammouda and Scheibel will also educate participants about how the food was made and sourced. MICA will provide baked goods for participants to take home. Drake Library will bring books with a food and cultural connection for the sessions and will also provide book lists about food and culture and free books that children can take home. 

GCMoA will create reproductions from their collection that feature food on one side and information on the back side with food assistance resources, recipes, art and writing projects, and information about the artwork. GCMoA and Drake will also provide activities focused on literacy and art-making. 

Woodward expressed her excitement about the project, saying, "We're thrilled to be able to bring together so many community partners to create a program that focuses on food security, literacy, and art-making. This program is a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about different cultural practices, explore their creativity, and gain a deeper understanding of the importance of healthy, locally sourced food." 

The Read It/See It/Make It/Eat it: Storytime Art in the Park with Iowa Kitchen & Middle Way Farm program will take place during the summer months in Grinnell, Iowa. Parents and children interested in participating can contact the Drake Community Library or the Grinnell College Museum of Art for more information.