Finding Homes, Feeding Families: REALTORS® Support Holiday Meal Program

Stocking, sorting, loading and helping families bring home a full holiday meal. Members of the RE/MAX Concepts Twin Power Real Estate Team completed these tasks in the early morning hours a few days before Thanksgiving. 

“We had about 18 volunteers there,” Lynette Sorensen, a REALTOR® with RE/MAX Concepts said. “While we were there we gave out about 720 meals to families. It’s really cool.” 

The yearly tradition started many years ago when the team’s office manager was looking for ways the group could give back to the community. 

“We’ve done it ever since,” Sorensen said. “It’s so impactful for the community. The need is there, and we have the ability to help people.” 

During their three hour shift, the team members each manned a station offering a food item or home essential. Community members then took a cart from station to station filling it with their needed items. 

“It’s a ton of food,” Sorensen said. “Throughout the years, we would carry the items as they loaded them up. It was like 70 pounds. Now we use carts.” 

In the past, RE/MAX could fill the entire shift, but with increased need in the community other groups have also stepped in to assist in the distribution. 

“This year there’s more need. So larger companies, like Viking Pump, the Waterloo Fire Department and others were there. It’s so cool to see the people come out to help. As you’re loading people’s cars, they are so grateful,” Sorensen said. “They are so appreciative that they are being given this food, that they’ll have something to eat.”

It wasn’t just the RE/MAX group assisting in the holiday meal distribution. The Northeast Iowa Board of REALTORS® also lent a helping hand. 

The board partners with brokerages to promote the Feeding a Family for the Holidays program, Kristi Tibben, executive officer for NEIRBR, said.  A $40 donation provides a complete Holiday Meal for the Food Bank’s Holiday Distribution Program. 

“Not only do we promote the Feeding a Family for the Holidays program, but we volunteer at the event each year. We fill shopping carts and put them into the family’s car when they arrive,” Tibben said. 

NEIRBR’s support of the program began last year during an ad match campaign. The board helps to fund social media and television ads that encourage community members to donate to the Feed a Family for the Holidays program. 

“This partnership is perfect because it impacts families in all of the 13 counties that we serve,” Tibben said. “It gives our members a way to get involved with the Food Bank’s mobile pantries that reach all of our counties. Our Partnership is branded ‘Finding Homes, Feeding Families.’ Nothing is more important than food and a home, especially for the holidays!”

Sorensen agrees, noting that finding ways to give back to the community is just what REALTORS® do. 

“I think REALTORS® have a big opportunity to get out into our neighborhoods and communities and really make a big impact,” Sorensen said. “We have flexibility to take a day to do that. It’s so easy to just do that, to make a difference in our community.”