All over Iowa, Farm Bureau members and their county Farm Bureaus are stepping up to help their communities during the COVID-19 crisis. A great example was a special meal enjoyed recently by the hard-working staff at medical facilities in Jones County. 

The Jones County Farm Bur­eau worked with the Jones County Pork Producers to help supply a meal of barbecue pork sandwiches and all the fixings for workers at the Jones Regional Medical Center and the Anamosa and Monticello Family Practice Clinics. “It was our way of saying thanks for all they are doing for all of us in this difficult time,” said Dominic Hogan, president of the Jones County Farm Bureau. 

The meal was truly appreciated, said Shelia Tjaden, community development director at Jones Regional Medical Center.

“When you know you have this kind of community support, it makes the day-to-day challenges that we are facing in health care a little more tolerable,” she said.

In her thank you note to the Jones County Farm Bureau, Tjaden wrote: “As each day brings new challenges, I am so proud to be part of a team who works through them together until we figure it out. And thanks to wonderful people like you, we feel a very strong community support, which is just awesome.”  

The partnership between the Jones County Farm Bureau and the Jones Regional Medical Center goes way back and has grown stronger over the years, Tjaden said. 

Several years ago, the Farm Bureau sponsored a fundraiser that encouraged area farmers to donate grain to help fund the construction of a new medical center in the eastern Iowa county, she said. 

The county Farm Bureau often holds meetings at the medical center and discusses ways to address health care issues in the county, Tjaden added.  

“It means so much when the organizations you’ve worked with over the years step up and say they want to help during this time,” Tjaden said.