Johnston Partnership

Mission: Mobilizing partnerships, resources, and services to respond to essential community needs.

In 2003, the Johnston Partnership was born from school nurses who saw kiddos who didn't have enough to eat on weekends and needed proper clothing. We have grown from there to encompass a DMARC food pantry & clothing closet, JUMP (our school-based mentoring), and other programs in partnership with the Johnston Community School District. Across all of our programs, we touch over 10,000 unique individuals each year. We receive funding through grants, the city of Johnston, & Polk County, but mostly through individual donors and other community organizations who find our work important.

Pantry info: Our food pantry & clothing closet is available to anyone who comes - there are no income restrictions or requirements. We ask for some form of “ID” but that is broadly defined…we need to spell peoples’ names correctly! Families can get a 3 day supply of food, personal care, diapers, produce, milk, meat, & eggs each month. They can also get 5 items of clothing per household member each month as well. They can come everyday we’re open for our Anytime items which encompasses items like bread, prepared food, or extra/seasonal produce. We serve an average of 85 families/300 individuals each day. A majority of our inventory comes from DMARC (Des Moines Area Religious Council), with some also coming from the Food Bank of Iowa. Personal care, milk, eggs, and diapers are covered through grant funding and the generous support of directed donations from the community. We currently average about 650 households and 3500 individuals (unique not repeat) served. Mentoring with JUMP - the Johnston Youth Mentoring Program - started in 2005 and has provided support to JCSD secondary students with a mentoring match to a community volunteer. These matches meet once a week during the school year, connecting during 1 class period for roughly an hour. Our mentors help students find personal & academic success by listening, encouraging, and supporting students by being a positive role model. We have roughly 120 matches each school year, and JUMP has had a 100% graduation rate since its inception. Weekend food & other school-based programming - The Johnston Partnership supports JCSD students in many ways throughout the year. One big way is with weekend food support through our Dragon Power pantry-to-go bags. Food is packed & delivered to each of the 9 JCSD buildings each week of the school year. The bags are then distributed by the school staff, keeping privacy and dignity in mind, so the students can take home the 5-7 full-sized food items for use when school breakfast/lunch aren’t available. The bags have items that can be combined to make a full meal, like peanut butter & jelly, spaghetti & pasta sauce plus canned fruit and other food supplies. We administer this program in cooperation with the Food Bank of Iowa, and we serve an average of 250 students per week.

We also provide seasonal services that assist JCSD students. We partner with the JCSD to host a Back To School event each August. This is a one-stop shop for families to register for classes, get physicals, sign up for lunch, bussing, athletics plus get a new backpack filled with school supplies. We provide the 400+ backpacks for this event each year, aided by community partners who purchase & pack the supplies. We also administer Johnston Gives each holiday season. This program helps support JCSD families who need extra support during the holidays with a WalMart gift card for food & gift purchases. We supported over 650 students in more than 180 families in 2025.