EIF-A_Lasting Contributions

COMMUNITY TAPESTRY
Organization weaves tapestry of
FOOD, FARMING
and COMMUNITY
Clinton County native
learned the value
of hard work and
the importance of
compassion from her
parents while growing
up on the family farm.
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Ann McGlynn grew up on a
small family farm in central
Clinton County, where her
parents, Frank and Chris,
still live and grow corn and
soybeans.
“My mom and dad are very hard workers,”
she said, recalling the example they
set for her and her two siblings during
their youth when the operation included
cattle and pigs in addition to crops on the
farm that is south of Charlotte/northeast
of DeWitt.
“My dad still works seven days a week
as a farmer. It’s who he is. My mom also
has this tremendous work ethic. They
are devoted to family,” she said. In 2022,
they received a Century Farm award.
The farmers McGlynn works with today
as the executive director of Tapestry
Farms – a Quad Cities-based nonprofit
that grows food and hires refugees – are
much newer to Eastern Iowa but also
come from backgrounds deeply rooted in
family and agriculture.
“A lot of the people we work with are
refugees. They have been forced to leave
their home country because of violence
or poverty,” McGlynn said, adding that
some of them have lived in a refugee
camp for a decade or more after fleeing
such countries as Democratic Republic of
Congo, Burundi and Rwanda.
“Many bring a farming background
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Ann McGlynn displays some bounty from a
garden cared for by Tapestry Farms, a Quad
Cities-based nonprofit that grows food and
hires refugees.
84 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2024 eifarmer.com