Harvest Table Food Pantry · Des Moines Donate

Free groceries · Des Moines, Iowa

It only works
if it keeps moving.

Harvest Table hands out free groceries to families across Des Moines, Iowa. It takes a chain of hands to do it — somebody grows it, somebody carries it, somebody sorts it, somebody eats tonight.

Give monthly Take a shift
Volunteers passing paper bags of groceries hand to hand down a long table
Bags on the move, mid-shift at the pantry. Des Moines, Iowa

Five ways in

Pick your link.

Nobody has to do all of it. Take the link that fits your week — bring food, run a drive, work a shift, pack a bag, or keep the shelves stocked with a monthly gift.

01

Bring food

Clear the cupboard, or shop the sales and bring the extras. Cans, pasta, rice, peanut butter — it goes in the door, and somebody sorts it, shelves it and hands it out.

What to bring
02

Run a drive

Get your workplace, your school or your block collecting. We’ll tell you what’s needed most, you fill the boxes, and we carry it the rest of the way.

Start a drive
03

Take a shift

Sort what came in, stock the shelves, carry bags out to the cars. Come once, or come back every week.

See how a shift runs
04

Pack a bag

Bags get filled for the families coming through the door. Bagging goes fast when the line has enough hands on it, and slow when it doesn’t.

Join the packing line
05

Give monthly

Drives come in waves. The need doesn’t. A monthly gift buys the staples in between, so the shelves stay stocked and the line keeps moving.

Give monthly

Volunteer shifts

Come move food.

Bring a couple of hours and a pair of hands, and the work goes quick. Come once, or come back every week.

Take a shift
A volunteer sorting canned goods into boxes beside pantry shelves
Sorting a morning’s deliveries.
  1. 01

    Unload

    Drives and deliveries land at the door. It gets carried in.

  2. 02

    Sort

    Dated things first, then everything else by what it is.

  3. 03

    Pack

    Bags get filled for the families coming through.

  4. 04

    Hand off

    Into a cart, into a car, home to a kitchen.

Food drives

Fill a box.
We’ll take it from there.

A drive at work, at school or around your block is the fastest way to bring in a lot of food at once. Tell us when the boxes are full and we’ll carry it the rest of the way.

What to collect

  • Peanut butter
  • Canned protein
  • Rice and pasta
  • Cereal
  • Canned fruit and veg
  • Baby food

Shelf-stable only, please — nothing that needs a fridge.

Run a drive
Boxes of donated canned food and jars stacked at a workplace food drive
Boxes collected at a workplace drive.

Get started

Two ways to keep it moving.

Give monthly so the shelves stay stocked between drives, or give your hands for a shift. Either one keeps food moving out the door.

01 · Monthly giving

Steady beats spiky.

Drives come in waves. The need doesn’t. A monthly gift buys the staples in between, so there is always something to hand over when somebody walks through the door. Set it up once and it works all year.

Give monthly

02 · Volunteer shifts

Give an afternoon.

Sorting, stocking, packing bags, carrying them out to the cars. Come once or come back every week — both keep the relay running.

Take a shift
Packed paper grocery bags of produce and pantry staples lined up on a counter
Bags packed and waiting for the next family through.