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CEDAR RAPIDS — Jackie Hodgins has been working to help combat food insecurity in her own small way since 2020, by providing free food in her Cedar Rapids neighborhood through what she calls a Help Shelf — a small cupboard fixed to the outside of her house, which she keeps stocked with food and other necessities like toilet paper, for anyone to take when needed.

She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was motivated by her faith and wanted to be able to provide whatever support she could in her area, and give others the opportunity to help as well by leaving donations on the shelf.

Now, with another national food crisis just around the corner as the ongoing federal government shutdown m

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