In this episode of “Plugged In to Public Health,” Lauren talks with Zuli Garcia, founder and president of Knock and Drop Iowa. The organization began in Zuli’s garage during the COVID-19 pandemic as a culturally specific Latino food pantry and has since grown into a multicultural organization serving hundreds of Iowa households each week.

Zuli shares why culturally appropriate food matters, how Knock and Drop Iowa grew from an emergency response into a nonprofit, and how food rescue and partnerships with local organizations help the pantry serve families across the Des Moines area.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Plugged in to Public Health. Today, we are talking to Zuli Garcia, founder and president of Knock and Drop Iowa, a nonprofit that began during the COVID-19 pandemic as a culturally-specific Latino food pantry operating out of Zuli’s garage. What started as an effort to make sure families could access familiar, culturally-appropriate food has grown significantly. Today, Knock and Drop Iowa operates a multicultural food pantry in the Des Moines area, serving roughly 300 to 450 households each week. The organization has also expanded beyond food insecurity to address other public health needs, including health education, vaccine access, community navigation, and partnerships with organizations across Iowa. In this episode, Zuli shares how her own experiences shaped the organization, why culturally-responsive services matter, and what she has learned about building trust with communities. We also talk about the importance of meeting people where they already are, working alongside trusted local leaders, and designing public health programs around the realities of people’s lives rather than expecting communities to adapt to the system.

I’m Lauren, and if it’s your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student-run podcast that talks about major issues in public health, and how they’re relevant to anyone both in and outside the field of public health. Now, let’s get Plugged in to Public Health. Plugged in to Public Health is produced and edited by students at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Thank you so much, Zuli Garcia, for being on the podcast with me today. I would love it if you could introduce yourself, what you do, and Knock and Drop Iowa, just so everyone’s on the same page about who you are.

Zuli Garcia:

Hello, everyone. I’m Zuli Garcia, founder and president of Knock and Drop Iowa, which started as a culturally-specific Latino food pantry out of my garage during the pandemic on March 24th of 2020. We have since then evolved, and now we service a multicultural food pantry out of the Northside Polk County building on 6th Avenue in Des Moines. We went from working one day a week food pantry-wise to five days a week. We now service five days a week, which helps us tremendously with the amount of food that is going out there, not only through food that we purchase, but also food rescue. We service roughly around, I would say, anywhere between 300 and 450 households on a weekly basis.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s incredible.

Zuli Garcia:

Yeah. And that is anywhere between on your monthly service or your anytime service. So anything that is food rescue becomes a daily service, so that’s why it’s important to rescue food and give it out to people that are in need in your community.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. A couple of follow-up questions. Number one, this is the first time that I’ve heard a food pantry or food service talked about as culturally-specific. Can you tell us how it started and why that need you saw in your community?

Zuli Garcia:

So when the pandemic hit, I started a project for six months, because, of course, COVID wasn’t going to be around for that long. And I remember that I was just like, okay, people are calling me. People are asking, “Where can I get food? I have money for bills, I have money for rent, but I don’t know how I’m going to feed my children.” And so I started calling food pantries around, and there was one specific food pantry that said, “Unless they had a government issue identification, they wouldn’t get food.” And I just thought that was ridiculous that you would need to provide an ID to receive food. You’re not getting money, you’re getting food.

Lauren Lavin:

Is that not common?

Zuli Garcia:

It’s no longer common.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Zuli Garcia:

At one point, I would say it probably was.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah.

Zuli Garcia:

But many food pantries out there weren’t.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Zuli Garcia:

And just one food pantry decided that was going to be their rule. And there’s probably still food pantries out there that do that.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah.

Zuli Garcia:

I just feel that in all reality, when you and I are on a food line and we need food versus food rescue, food service, whatever the case may be, why do you need an identification? Why is that needed? You’re not getting money, you’re getting food. So that was enough for it to frustrate me, in better words. I’m saying it in nice words. But it was enough for me to be like, okay, this is ridiculous.

And so I remember not only was I working my full-time job, but I was actually creating a group of volunteers who wanted to join forces with me to collect food from these restaurants that were closing down to be able to provide it to them. And I remember that I got a list of volunteers, that they’re still with me, half of them are still with me now. And I had about roughly 20 to 25 volunteers that were like, “I’m ready. Tell me what we need to do.”

And so I remember that someone came to me and said, “I’d like to interview you, and I’d like to see how we can help you.” And I was like, “Yeah, whatever. Like everyone else, what are you trying to get?” And that person actually said, “No. What you don’t realize is you’re doing the work. You should open a nonprofit because you literally are doing it from your heart. You’re not doing it for a kickback, you’re not doing it for anything. You’re doing the hard work.” And I’m like, “When do you expect me to do this if I work full-time?” And they were like, “You already do it. So I’m sure things would be much easier if you had a 501(c)(3).”

So time passed, and I remember that it was September of 2020 when I finally decided… Now, we started March 24th, and by September of 2020, I decided, okay, I’m going to start a nonprofit because the need is real. How many pantries out there… I started with what I knew. I started with what I eat at home. And going to some of these food pantries, I don’t eat boxed or canned food. I’m sorry, that’s just me. I get it, I respect that you like tomato soup and a grilled cheese. I like grilled cheese too. But does that mean that because I like it and I’m more Americanized, that everybody should be eating grilled cheese? No.

We have kids that are so used to eating their homemade meals, and I will tell you, when my dad comes and visits me and he makes our home meals from when I was a kid, I don’t know how to make them, but I miss them. And I’m just like, I love eating that, I just don’t have either the time or I don’t know how to make it. So to me, it was very important, as I was seeing families struggling, that we could provide something that is culturally relevant to what they eat, and especially for the children. Because some kids felt like, this is not what I eat, we’re struggling, and now I have to eat this canned soup, although I don’t think it tastes good and I don’t like it, because we’re used to homemade soup [foreign language 00:06:37] that’s what we’re used to [foreign language 00:06:42] that’s what we’re used to, homemade tortillas.

And so I remember that I was like, okay, I’m going to figure this out. And I started collecting food, and I started spending a lot of my own money to give out food and toilet paper, which was big at that time, when all of a sudden, my job came at me and said, “We have to furlough you.” And I was like, what? And I remember at that time I was mad, devastated, a little bit of everything, and I was mad, but instead of me staying home and just being mad at the world and crying, I just decided, fine, I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing. I’m going to get unemployment anyways because they’re furloughing me.

What I didn’t realize, that during those three months that I was out of work, I was actually building the foundation of my organization, because I was dedicating anywhere between 50 to 60 hours a week to it. So not only was I getting up at 5:00 in the morning to answer emails, to request this, to go do that, to go make a line at Sam’s Club to buy toilet paper, because you could only buy so much daily, to give away toilet paper out of my vehicle, to meet volunteers at my garage to be able to deliver food, I wasn’t realizing that while it was created for me… Because in all reality, I’m very honest, it was created because I did not want to be trapped at home, because I did not want to be just watching the news and going crazy with what was going on out there. It was really creative for my mental state of mind, but at the same time, I felt good in what I was doing.

Lauren Lavin:

Right.

Zuli Garcia:

And so by October 1st of 2020, we received our 501(c)(3), and it was backdated to April 1st of 2020, April Fool’s Day. So ever since then, we have had our nonprofit status. We’ve grown what started out of my garage and out of my back of my Jeep. Now, we have two locations. We have our office location and a small little food pantry, where we do one-on-one services, where we have a community health navigator. And then, we have our mass distribution that is at the Polk County building on the north side of town.

Even myself, people ask me, “How did you do it?” And I’m like, I don’t know. All I can tell you is that it truly does come from me giving back, because as a child, I remember being… My mom was lost in drugs, and I remember being in the Salvation Army line for a gift or in the Salvation Army line for a bag of food. And what would we get? We would get a cheese brick and some canned goods. Was it something really that we wanted? No. But did we need to eat it? Yeah. And so I think a lot of it goes back to my own struggles as a child.

Then my dad gives me the story of when he was back home in El Salvador, he was finishing high school, and he fainted because he hadn’t eaten for three days. And if it wasn’t for a teacher feeding him a [foreign language 00:09:44] which is bread with beans in it, until he graduated, he probably would’ve never graduated high school. He probably would’ve never gone onto the university. Food insecurity is really close to my heart, and I do it because I feel that everyone deserves a meal. Everyone deserves to be able to receive something and eat, and especially the children.

Lauren Lavin:

What an incredible story. Wow. So much depth to that. So you talk a little bit about sourcing some of that food, either via food rescue or I don’t know what other mechanisms you use, but how do you find culturally-specific food and what does that look like for sourcing?

Zuli Garcia:

A lot of it has changed. I will tell you that a lot of the big stakeholders out there, such as Food Bank of Iowa and DMARC, are very much open to listening and making the changes necessary to add culturally-appropriate foods. Food Bank of Iowa has done an amazing job in the last years since I’ve came on that they’re purchasing some of this fresh produce that is relevant to us. Even when we had our HHS audit, they’re asking us, what would we like to have out there, or what are we looking for? So I think that is important, is that these organizations that are the high stakeholders are listening to you, because I feel that it isn’t just about putting your logo on a flyer, but also listening to what is actually a need out there.

Also, reaching out to those local small businesses. When I first started, it was a lot of the small Mexican stores that were donating stuff to us. They were donating things to make sure that they could help out, and that made a big difference. Raising money was within our own community to be able to give back. And now, the fact that we’re able to not just go to them when we need something, but also to these bigger stakeholders, they’ll listen to us and purchase it and add it, I think that makes a huge difference. Example, we get donations, food rescue from a local fruit and vegetable place around here that’s called Capital City Fruits, and it’s amazing when during the summertime, there’s times that we’ll get a pallet of mangoes because before it goes bad…

There’s a certain thing that you want to sell, and then there’s things that you’re like, okay, I’m not going to sell it anymore because it’s probably only got a small lifetime, and so before it goes bad, let’s get rid of it, let’s give it to food rescue. And I’m telling you, how many families come out here and they’re excited, because not only do we get mangoes, we get pineapples, we get jalapenos, we get radish, we get stuff that we’re used to eating. And I think that is important, because people are listening, and people are wanting to help and not just say, “Here, take this,” but also say, “Okay. What do I have here that could help you?” And it really is, it makes a huge difference in the world when you’re being seen in your [inaudible 00:12:43].

Lauren Lavin:

That’s incredible. What would you say that your day-to-day looks like? What’s a week in a life with Knock and Drop Iowa?

Zuli Garcia:

It changes every day. Yes, we started with food insecurity, we started with food in my garage. But I think what a lot of people probably haven’t finished herding is that we’re also part of vaccines and health education. We’re also part of the educational part of things. We’re also trying to grow, where we just got granted two AmeriCorps members, which is huge for us. We’re working on a way on how we can build other things to make the foundation more stable than what we already have it, because one day, I want to be able to retire and pass it on to someone else, because I don’t want it to disappear. I want someone else to continue it.

I think for me, every day is different. It’s never the same. We’re definitely not where we were at in March 24th of 2020 when we were in my garage and we didn’t have a place to be at. I remember filling out all the applications to become a food pantry, and it was always like, “You need this. And then, now, you need this. Congratulations, you passed this, but now you need this.” And I remember that my last time I filled it out, I was like, okay, now what? Now, what are you going to ask me? And I remember at that time, it was Alexi at Food Bank of Iowa, and she was like, “Zuli, you’ve got everything. Congratulations.” And I literally started bawling, because I was like, I did it. I did it. I didn’t know anything about this, but I did it.

So I will tell you that every day is a different day. Today could be a ton of food rescue, that someone calls me and says, “Hey, we have two pallets out in Storm Lake. Can you come pick them up?” And we’ll go rent a U-Haul and we’ll go pick them up, or we’ll call a refrigerated truck and we’ll go pick it up, depending on what it is. Sometimes, it’ll be in Ames, where somebody will be like, “Hey, we’ve got two pallets of plush toys. Do you want to come get it?” Yep, we’ll drive over there to give it out and pass it on to Christmas. There’s a lot of things that we do different every day. But I will definitely tell you that every day is a learning curve, every day is a growing curve, and every day is a pain-growing time.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. You also mentioned that you guys have expanded beyond food into some of those health education and vaccine clinics. What led that initiative?

Zuli Garcia:

It was really during COVID. I remember that a lot of the community was afraid to go getting vaccinated, like what information was going to be required? What about if I don’t speak English? What am I going to do? And I remember that even myself, is it a vaccine that we can trust? And so I remember my partner and now part of my board member, my good friend, he was like, “Hey…” He has an organization. I have an organization. He was like, “How about we join forces and have meetings with these pharmaceutical companies and figure out, or with the universities, of who can come out here and vaccinate?”

And so I remember they connected us with Hy-Vee, and Hy-Vee Pharmacy came in and vaccinated. And they were like, “How many people do you expect?” And we were like, “At least I have 20 volunteers. At least we feed…” At that time, we would feed anywhere between 35 to 50 families a week. And I’m like, “That, we’ll figure it out.” And it was 2020. And I remember that I went to go pick up the food, because it was going to be delivered, I picked up the food for the volunteers, and I was like, “Hey, as people are coming in, let them know that we have vaccines, blah, blah, blah, blah.” And my volunteers call me and they’re like, “Zuli, you won’t believe this.” And I’m like, “What?” They’re like, “There’s a line wrapped around the building.” I’m like, “What?” So our first COVID vaccine was over 500 individuals that showed up.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh my goodness.

Zuli Garcia:

And that was during COVID. That was in 2020 during COVID. So we learned from there. We continued on with the health education part of things, but we weren’t just as involved as we were. We would promote it, we would refer people. But then, November of 2023, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer, pre-cervical cancer, and that was hard for me. It was very emotional. It was very stressful. It was a moment that I didn’t know what I was going to do. I wasn’t understanding why I was going through this. Why me, if I’m very careful, I take care of my body, I go get checked, I didn’t have symptoms? Symptoms were very fast. It wasn’t like I had ever had an abnormal screening. I get screened every year. Why did this happen to me? I was very upset at the world and at God, and I think I still am. I will still ask him questions the day I’m no longer here. I think I’m that rebellious person that will question whoever I see when I pass away. I was just very mad and I couldn’t understand what I was going through.

And I remember that after my diagnosis, I remember telling myself, okay, stop this crap, in much better words that I won’t say. Get your crap together. This is not you. You’ve got to learn from this. So if you’re going through this crap, who else goes through this? And imagine you, you have the language, you have the insurance, you can advocate for yourself, you get mad and you question it. You went to five doctors before you were finally told what was wrong with you. What happens with those people out there, the community that doesn’t have what you have? Stuff isn’t in Spanish, this stuff is in English, and I still didn’t understand it, right? And so I was like, okay.

So I remember I went to Polk County Health Department, and I have a good friend there that… Her name is Angelica. And I remember that I asked Angelica, “Could you help me? Could you help me, because I feel that if I’m lost, what happens to that community that has no clue what was just told to them?” Because I was literally told, “You have cancer cells. You have cervical cancer. We need to go in there and have a hysterectomy,” at that time. And I was just like, what? What did you just say to me? I was just lost. I remember that I walked out. I was crying nonstop. Because you hear the word cancer and that’s enough to freak you out, right? That’s enough to scare you. And so I remember I told her and I said, “I need help. I need someone that can do an educational chat. I want to be able to do this. I want to learn from this and be able to help others understand what they can do, how to advocate.” And she was like, “Okay.”

So I remember that in December, she finally connected me with the national organization Survivor, and my mentor is Patty, and she met with me. I gave her my story, what had happened. She was like, “Okay. Let’s learn together. Let’s do this. I’ll do the educational chat with you.” And so the first one, I wasn’t ready to talk. The first one, it was just her talking. And she’s in New York City, and so she’s talking, she’s giving out the information, and I’m just there because I’m taking it in. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m stressed, right? But I learned through her and through many conferences and teachings and learning and my own study and my own advocacy that what better way it was than to share my story, to let others know, because who doesn’t know Zuli Garcia here in Iowa, right?

And they’re like, “We know you have a food pantry, but now what? And you’re telling us to do what? And there’s a vaccine and you’re going to bring it at your chat.” And so I started building conversations, cervical cancer chats, survivorship. And until now, actually, they did a presentation early this year, because my partners are Iowa Immunizes, Iowa Medical Society, and they helped me build this presentation where I presented. And at that time, we had reached over 8,000 individuals with information.

Lauren Lavin:

Wow.

Zuli Garcia:

People that have been vaccinated, not just against HPV, but when I partner with the local county health department that can come out and give the vaccine, so then they also bring flu, they bring MMR, they bring HPV. They bring every vaccine that is available to be able to be given out. And so that’s where my partnership started in November of 2023 to continue doing this. And now, all my grants that I write in, on top of the food insecurity grants that I write, I also write vaccine grants, educational grants, like how can we get this vaccine out there? Who can I partner to get it out there? We don’t administer it, but we partner with the right ones to be able to do it. We partner with Broadlawns.

And for me, it’s very important to understand that people have time that’s valuable, okay? So although you may think that, hey, I’m going to give them this information that’s good for them and it’s educational. Yeah, but you know what? Like everyone else, we’re super busy. We may not be able to make it, because you have to juggle life and be like, okay, so do I go to this educational thing that’s going to be probably 30 minutes to an hour, or do I go pick up my kids, or do I go cook, or do I go clean, or do I get ready for tomorrow? So all my grants, since I started, I’ve pushed for a bag of fresh produce. So for them to attend my event and listen to me, they will get a bag of fresh produce. Just for attending and listening to the education that we’re going to provide to them, they will get a bag of fresh produce.

Now, if there is a local county health department… And after they’re done listening, there’s a survey in Spanish and in English. There’s a survey that they can answer questions so I can learn to what else to bring to the table, what else is needed. What did you find that was important out of this conversation? Are you vaccinated? Are you not? Do you need contacts? Do you want to get connected? When was your last screening? Did you get checked? Has it been abnormal? Where can you go? Who can help you? And if a local county health department comes in to give the HPV vaccine, they will get a $25.

So all my grants and all my partners know that’s how I roll, and they are very supportive to be able to support that, and that’s why we’ve reached to such a large population. And it’s not just in Des Moines. We’ve traveled to Iowa City, we’ve traveled to Council Bluffs, Ottumwa, pretty soon Mason City, Marshalltown, Perry, Red Oak, Storm Lake. You name it, we’ve been all over the place. And we just want to take this all over the state of Iowa because we feel that this is important. I know it’s important because if I would’ve been vaccinated, I wouldn’t have gone through what I went through, right? I was 46 years old when I got a full hysterectomy.

And yes, I’m here now, and yes, I don’t have any more pre-cancer cells, but I’m still going through other things. I have a patch now. I have to wear a patch for hormones. My hair’s very thin. My hair’s no longer this thick, beautiful hair that I used to have. That is a struggle for me, because I used to have this long, thick, curly, beautiful hair, and now my hair is very thin and fragile and I have to deal with that. And I know that some people will be like, “You didn’t die.” Because that’s really what someone told me, “Oh, there’s a high chance that you’ll live. There’s nothing going to be wrong with that.” It was a dismissive, right? But I’m like, you have no idea everything that comes with it, the depression, the stress, you’re scared. You don’t know. Leaving a letter for your husband and telling him, “If I don’t survive this surgery, this is what you need to do. Enjoy life, retire, go to Mexico, and be happy, and just give me one year of respect, because if not, I’ll come back for you.”

So you can sit there and say everything is going to be fine and it’s going to be easy, but unless you’ve gone through it, you have no idea everything that you go through. And so I think November of 2023 really made a huge difference for me, because when we had our first cervical cancer chat education with Patty being online in New York City, I wasn’t here, I was actually collecting a donation in New York for my nonprofit, I remember that my team once again called me and they were like, “You have no idea how many women are here.” Because Patty asked me, “How many people do you think will come?” And I’m like, “At least my volunteers. They know they’ve got to be there.” And I’m like, “There’s no choice. They have to be there.” And so my team was like, “You have no idea how many women.”

“30?”

“Nope.”

“40?”

“Nope.”

“50?”

“Nope.”

“Just tell me.”

And they said, “We have 129.” And so that’s when we learned Polk County has the program Ribbons of Hope, where we connect a lot of women to go get their screenings, their exams. And so it’s nice to learn that and teach that and let them know. But it’s also good in empowering them that just because you went to the doctor and the doctor told you today that everything is okay and nothing’s wrong with you, but let’s say in a week, you start having some type of feeling or something different with your body, advocate for yourself.

Lauren Lavin:

Wow. Thank you for sharing all of that. I’m so sorry that you have gone through all that, but it’s so inspiring to hear how you’ve turned something that was obviously really hard into something that’s going to probably save lives for other women, and you can’t put a price on that. So I appreciate you sharing all of this.

I’m so inspired by how thoughtful everything seems to be, like the idea of grouping produce with education as a way to get them in. And I think the idea that you offer the vaccines at that time, so that scheduling and all of that kind of stuff… It just seems like at every juncture, you think about how can I make this easiest and safest and most accessible to people, and I’m very inspired by that, so I hope our listeners are too.

As we wrap this up, my question is, it seems like you’ve developed a lot of trust with your community. What suggestions do you have? How have you built that trust over time? And for people like me who maybe aren’t part of your community or looking at my own community, how do you build those types of relationship and trust so that you can have turnouts like you do in that type of community building?

Zuli Garcia:

I think it really is listening to them is very important. Listening, but also coming where they are at, meeting them where they are at, meeting them where they feel comfortable, not making them come out of their area to come to you because you don’t want to have to go there. And I think that’s a lot of the issue sometimes, is we’re trying to call them onto, “Come here, come to Des Moines. We have all this in Des Moines,” right? Versus I’m actually going to where they’re at. I work with their local leaders, because really, in order for you to even be allowed into a space, you have to work with local leaders. You have to understand what is going on in their area.

Because you can go, for example, let’s just say Marshalltown. I have a huge support system and audience in Marshalltown. They were the first ones that actually welcomed me and wanted to bring the HPV vaccines to the event. Sydney, if you’re listening to me, you know I love you. She’s amazing. But what does she do? We don’t create a whole new event for me. I join forces with them. So they’re having a huge back-to-school event in August, and I already know that’s when I’m going to go. Why? Because there’s going to be 500-plus families coming through. So the last time we were there last year, we had about 49 individuals between children and adults that got vaccinated against HPV. That’s just HPV on top of the other vaccines that she brings out there to have them vaccinated. We don’t create a whole new event. We just join forces. Now, if there isn’t one, great. We’ll figure out who do we partner with? How do we get it out there? How do we get the word out there through the local trusted people? But it really is joining forces with your local leaders.

Ottumwa, for example, we will be in Ottumwa at their Latino Festival. That’s when we’re going to go. Why? Because we know there’s going to be a lot of people. Talk to them. We build our events to what is needed. Yes, sometimes we have events where, you know what, we’re at a church. Sometimes we have events where we’re at an event and we’re tabling. Sometimes we have events where it’s a back-to-school event. Sometimes we have events at a baby boom event. So it’s just we build it to what is trustworthy for you, what it’s going to bring you.

We were invited by Monsoon, which is an Asian organization, and they came in and did a baby boom event, where they have a ton of baby clothes, all sizes and everything, but we knew we were going to reach another community that we probably hadn’t reached before. So what did we do? We thought about things. We’re not going to bring fresh produce. We’re going to bring baby formula. So we brought in baby formula, and that is exactly what brought people to our table, was the baby formula, hearing my spiel. My volunteers know it already, they’re sharing my story, they’re sharing the education, they’re sharing the HPV information, they’re sharing how to make an appointment. And if you need help, we’ll help you, our community navigator will help you. Now, answer these questions, the survey, and you’ll get a baby formula. So it really is thinking outside the box that not one way is the right way, it’s how can we tweak it to make it successful for that community that day?

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. I think you made a great point, meeting them where they’re at. So as we wrap this up, if people are interested in your organization, whether that’s volunteering or monetarily, how can they find you or how could people get involved if they’re interested?

Zuli Garcia:

So they could definitely email me directly at Zuli, Z-U-L-I, @.org, all spelled out, not like knocking. That’s how we started and we just kept the name. They can call me, or text me would be best because I get a ton of phone calls, 515-330-60 [inaudible 00:30:58] or they can simply go to our website, and there are spots there that tells you how to donate, other ways to donate. So it gives you a way to donate there at the moment, but it also tells you if you want to mail out a check or if you want to do it through Cash App, PayPal, whatever you want to do, there’s several options there, so I would definitely see. If you want me to bring this to your area, we’re more than willing to work with you, work with your local leaders. We also would love some donations, because obviously we were granted AmeriCorps, so we have to raise money. So if you have any funding out there, no small, no big, that you can support us, that would be greatly appreciated.

Lauren Lavin:

Fabulous. Well, thank you so much for taking time to share with me today. I feel like I learned so much. And thank you so much for sharing your personal story. It always adds so much to the discussion.

That’s it for our episode this week. Big thank you to Zuli Garcia for joining us today and for sharing both the story of Knock and Drop Iowa and her own experiences so openly. One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation for me is that accessibility in public health involves much more than simply making a service available. It means asking whether that service is culturally relevant, whether people trust the organizations providing it, whether language or logistical barriers stand in the way, and whether we are actually bringing resources to people in places where they already live, work, gather, and feel comfortable.

Knock and Drop Iowa offers a particularly interesting example of what that can look like in practice. From providing culturally-appropriate food and rescuing fresh produce, to bringing HPV and other vaccines into existing community events, Zuli and her team have built their programs around listening first and then adapting their approach to the needs of each community second. And perhaps the simplest lesson from this episode is also one of the most important. Building trust takes relationships. It means working with local leaders, showing up consistently, listening to what people tell you they need, and being willing to change the way public health services are delivered when the traditional model is not working.

This episode was hosted and written by Lauren Lavin, and edited and produced by Lauren Lavin. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.