Burton is named Charles City Person of the Year at volunteer honors ceremony

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Jen Burton was named the Charles City Person of the Year as the finale of the Community Volunteer Recognition Awards Friday morning, co-hosted by the Charles City Area Chamber of Commerce and the Main Street Charles City programs.

Burton, who coordinates the monthly mobile food pantry distributions at the county fairgrounds, as well as several other volunteer activities, was one of 26 people singled out for recognition by various community groups, schools and other organizations as part of the ceremony.

Nine of those people were recognized for being “caught in the act” of doing unselfish acts for others in the community.

Burton is the community’s first “person of the year,” after the previous man of the year and woman of the year awards were combined.

Burton told the Press she has always enjoyed volunteering, but at a previous job in Osage the long hours and working out of town prevented her from giving it the time she wanted.

Then she got a job back in Charles City, at Valero Renewables, and not only did she have more time and was back in the community, she was working for a company that embraced and encouraged the volunteer spirit, she said.

“I found that I really enjoyed giving back in a way that I had never done before,” she said. “I was helping with groups I’d never helped with before, and I met so many new people … great people.”

Burton said she got involved with the monthly mobile food pantry distribution when Valero invited the Northeast Iowa Food Bank to help kick off a United Way campaign, because it is one of the groups that receives funds through the campaign.

She really liked the message of what the Food Bank does, and when the representatives of the organization asked if any Valero employees wanted to help with the distribution, she got involved.

At that time the monthly distributions were still taking place in the parking lot at the high school.

“I started helping there and I got hooked. It was just so fun. I’ve never had so much fun,” she said. “It was an adrenaline rush – how many cars can you get through? But when you look back that wasn’t the deal. It was how many we were feeding, and the faces I saw. And it’s like, wow, we are making an impact.”

As the Northeast Iowa Food Bank folks decided to make the distribution a regular event, they knew they needed a space where the volunteers could get ready indoors, so they committed to using the Youth Enrichment Center at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.

“I’d been showing up and getting trained on this, that and the other thing, and I said, ‘Anything else I can learn or do?’” Burton said. “And they’re like, yeah, you want to take over?”

She said they needed someone to coordinate locally, to get volunteers and do outreach for the program.

“And I said yes – woohoo! That was back in January 2023. Yeah, it’s just been over a year since I’ve been doing this,” she said.

“It really kicked off. I talked to anybody I could talk to, whether if it was a service group or school or veterans or the Rotary or the Elks or whoever I could talk to,” she said.

She talked about food insecurity rates in Floyd County, which vary between about 10% and 12% of the residents of the county who aren’t sure if they will have enough food – a number she said is “relatively high” compared to other counties with a population size similar to Floyd County.

“With that outreach and then asking for volunteers, it really blossomed. And I’m just humbled every time we have one, all the people that sign up to volunteer and help,” she said.

Each month they are able to distribute around 40 to 50 pounds of food per household.

“To me it’s not a handout, it a help up,” Burton said, noting that many people can be just one illness or one car breakdown away from not being able to afford their next meal.

“We set up an assembly line and I’ve got some great coworkers that manage the inside,” she said. Other volunteers get the cars parked and loaded, first in, first out.

“And it’s not just Valero. It’s everyone in the community. I made contacts with Zoetis – hey, you want to have a day? Pick a month? How about the Elks? How about the Floyd County Democrats?” she said. “I get some individuals that just want to be there – they come almost every month. They just want to help.”

She said the numbers served began to climb, going from 150 households to 160, 170 – and that could mean 400 or 500 individuals within those households.

As the number of households began to be in the 200s each month, Burton said she was also hearing from people who said they couldn’t make it out to the fairgrounds.

St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church offered to use its bus to deliver food, working through Burton to organize the deliveries because she has received the required training in confidentiality and non-discrimination.

There are about 35 or 36 home deliveries each month now, she said.

“And there’s room to grow. I’ll have people contact me often about, ‘how do I get on that list,’” she said, although she added that people who do have transportation should continue picking up the food so deliveries can be used for those who can’t make it to the fairgrounds.

Burton, who is the quality assurance/quality control manager at Valero, said she really appreciates the support the company gives to volunteer efforts.

“It’s just a foundation or a cornerstone of the company. You know, there’s safety, there’s reliability, but there’s also community. And they encourage to give back,” she said.

Burton is also involved with the Floyd County Quilts of Valor group, PAWS Humane Society, helps with the downtown community planters, and is on the Floyd County Community Foundation Committee.

She encouraged everyone to find something they are passionate about and then find a way to help, even if it’s only occasionally.

“Oh my gosh, the feeling, it’s almost indescribable, when you walk away and you may have met someone, you may have seen a smile when you saw you know, a couple of kids in the car. … You just walk away with an incredible sense of community and that you’ve done good, something good has been happening in this mess of the rest of the world,” she said.

Burton said she was “humbled” to receive the Person of the Year Award.

“I mean, the people that that have previously gotten the award, I’ve looked up to them as mentors, so, yeah, I hope I can fill the shoes,” she said.