Natalie Veldhouse

Natalie Veldhouse is the Community Food Security VISTA at the Crisis Center of Johnson County. The AmeriCorps VISTA program stations full-time volunteers in nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and governmental offices to work with issues relating to poverty. VISTA members earn a living stipend that is adjusted to the local poverty level. The Crisis Center of Johnson County is a nonprofit in Iowa City that offers crisis intervention, suicide prevention, food bank, and emergency assistance services.

Natalie’s work primarily involves serving the Johnson County Hunger Task Force: a gathering of local government officials, nonprofit leaders, community gardeners and concerned citizens interested in alleviating food insecurity in the community. Natalie serves as the chair of the Access Subcommittee and as a member of the Healthy Foods Subcommittee of the task force. The Access Subcommittee has been working on various research projects to gather data concerning food security from the community. The Healthy Foods Subcommittee works to promote healthy eating in the county, and to bring together the issue of food insecurity and the local foods movement.

Natalie began serving the Hunger Task Force in December of 2014 as an intern for the Crisis Center during her last semester at Iowa. She started her position as the Community Food Security VISTA shortly after graduating from Iowa in May of 2015. Natalie graduated with a B.A. in Ethics and Public Policy, and minored in Sociology and French. She also served as the Vice President of the Sociology Club 2014-2015. She is interested in pursuing a career in community-based research, but is indecisive about whether to further her studies in social work or sociology.