Founder of Feed Iowa First Has Died

Sonia Kendrick, founder of the non-profit group Feed Iowa First, has died.

Cindy Hadish, freelance journalist from Cedar Rapids, posted this sad news on the Homegrown Iowan website today:

According to the website Little Village, Kendrick founded Feed Iowa First in Cedar Rapids in 2011. The nonprofit group works with churches and businesses to grow vegetables in open spaces. Volunteers then donate all the vegetables grown to food banks, Meals on Wheels and other charitable organizations to feed Iowa people in need.

A cause of death has not yet been officially released, and friends are shocked and saddened by the news. It was obvious to all who knew Sonia that she was truly cut from a different cloth. Friends described her as giving, caring, a kind and spirited soul.

Kendrick was an Afghanistan war veteran who worked tirelessly on behalf of thousands of under-nourished Iowans with Feed Iowa First. Neighborhood farming projects like the one at St. Wenceslaus Church in Cedar Rapids provide home grown organic food for the neighboring poor. In 2014 she was honored at the White House as a "Champion of Change". 

[source: Little Village, Homegrown Iowan]