Together Again

When Tara Noonan arrived to her volunteer job at the St. Matthias Food Pantry in Cascade one Saturday last year, she was floored by what she saw. A new refrigerator and freezer had arrived. 

“I was like a kid in a candy store,” Noonan said. 

The pantry began last year as a “pop-up” operation before finding a permanent home in a church facility. The new appliances, which the pantry didn’t previously have, enabled the organization to store more food for longer periods and better serve an increasing number of food insecure community members during the pandemic. 

“This wouldn’t have been possible without the Women’s Giving Circle and the Greater Dubuque Disaster Recovery Fund,” said fellow pantry volunteer Kay Hoffman. 

Hoffman and Noonan shared their story with members of the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque’s Women's Giving Circle during their annual Gifts and Grants Ceremony on June 30. The ceremony, held at the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, was the Circle’s first in-person gathering since March 2020. It was a chance to hear stories about the impact their grantmaking made during the pandemic and celebrate the 2021 grant recipients. 

“The Women’s Giving Circle is something you all can and should be very proud of,” Amy Manternach, the Foundation’s chief operating officer, told the group. “The impact and difference you have made in the lives of women and children in our community is to be commended.”