Community Night

Iowa City Free Lunch Program

Tuesday, August 4, 2026 | 5 - 9 PM

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You Dine In - We Give Back. Please join us for dinner as we donate a 10% of dinner sales to Iowa City Free Lunch Program.

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About:

The Free Lunch Program (FLP) began in January 1983 when two therapists from the Community Mental Health Center, wishing to address the concerns of their clients, spoke to a Lenten study group at St. Mary’s Parish about the need for a free meal for people in the community. The response was, “Let’s do it.”

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By 1989, the Free Lunch Program had become a designated United Way agency and expanded to a six-day-a-week meal program with over 35 different religious, student, neighborhood, and social groups providing the meals. FLP volunteers now number over 900. Volunteer teams prepare and serve nutritious meals using their own food or the food from local restaurants, grocery stores, and food distributors via Table to Table Food Rescue Organization, and from items in the Free Lunch pantry obtained through the HACAP Food Reservoir.

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The Free Lunch Program of Iowa City serves meals from noon to 1 p.m. Monday through Saturday, all year long, to anyone who shows up at its location at 1105 Gilbert Court Suite 100 in Iowa City, Iowa.

 

Click to learn more and get involved: