The World Food Prize Foundation recently announced that Ann McGlynn, founder and executive director of Tapestry Farms in Davenport, Iowa, will receive the 2025 Robert D. Ray Iowa SHARES Humanitarian Award. McGlynn is recognized for her leadership in advancing sustainable food access throughout the Quad Cities, where her nonprofit reclaimed underused land to grow more than 20,000 pounds of fresh, culturally relevant produce, thus strengthening local food systems and nourishing communities in need.
“Ann McGlynn’s work with Tapestry Farms is a powerful example of how a local initiative can turn untapped land into vital sources of fresh food,” says Mashal Husain, World Food Prize Foundation president. “Her commitment to expanding sustainable food access across the Quad Cities embodies the values of compassion, resilience and community the Robert D. Ray Iowa SHARES Humanitarian Award proudly recognizes. We invite everyone to celebrate Ann’s achievements and engage with leaders tackling hunger at the Iowa Hunger Summit on July 16.”
In 2024, Tapestry Farms grew more than 11,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables with the dedication of more than a dozen staff members, interns and 300 volunteers. The farm operates at 12 locations across the Quad Cities from April to October and hydroponically year-round in a 320-square-foot shipping container, which was fully funded by the John Deere Foundation and installed in 2023.
This enables Tapestry Farms to grow an additional 2 to 6 tons of produce annually.
The harvest is distributed across food pantries, nonprofits, a monthly subscription service and a farmers market stand. This year, the Quad Cities Community Foundation awarded $300,000 over three years to Tapestry Farms to enable it to almost triple the pounds of food grown and
more than double the families served by its culturally specific food pantry.
From inspiration to lasting change
Founded in 2017, Tapestry Farms not only cultivates food but also supports refugee families with housing, medical and mental health care, education, employment, transportation, and community connections. It works with about 25 families at a time and has served more than 130 families since its founding.
McGlynn was inspired to start Tapestry Farms after working at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa, where the congregation welcomed a refugee mother and her six children from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Seeing the greater need in her community and echoing Gov. Robert Ray’s commitment decades earlier, McGlynn knew she had to help. That family — and a gifted bowl of spinach from their backyard — sparked the founding of Tapestry Farms and the growth of community food systems.
“When Robert Ray made the decision to welcome refugees to the state of Iowa in the mid-1970s, he did so to save lives,” McGlynn says. “But he didn't stop there. He worked to feed and care for people forcibly displaced from their homes in Cambodia. Then, he forged a path for our entire nation to welcome refugees as Iowa did, with the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980. Some of the most important people in my life are building their lives in Iowa because of Robert Ray's persistence, and our work at Tapestry Farms seeks to nourish people just as he did. I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to receive an award named for Gov. Ray.”
McGlynn grew up on a small family farm in Clinton County, Iowa. After attending elementary school in Welton, and junior and senior high school in DeWitt, she became a two-time graduate of the University of Iowa, earning a bachelor’s in journalism and a master’s in business administration.
McGlynn will be awarded the Iowa SHARES Award at the annual Iowa Hunger Summit on July 16 at the Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates in Des Moines. Registration is now open for the Iowa Hunger Summit.
Register now for Iowa Hunger Summit
The Iowa Hunger Summit is a free annual event that unites leaders and advocates from across the state to tackle the complex challenges of hunger at every stage of life.
This year’s theme, “From the Ground Up,” highlights the vital need to nurture sustainable solutions to food insecurity, from the first breath to the final years of life. True, lasting change depends on a lifelong commitment to ensuring access to nutritious food for all Iowans.
Source: World Food Prize Foundation