Chuck Isenhart is an investigative reporter, photographer and recovering Iowa state legislator offering research, analysis, education and public affairs advocacy at his Substack newsletter Iowa Public Policy Geek, where this essay first appeared.
March 20 was the seventh anniversary of Sonia (Kendrick) Stover’s death, at age 40. The news was a blow to me and others in every way imaginable. The best I could do to mourn her passing was to make a point of personal privilege on the floor of the Iowa House of Representatives, reading a story by Alison Gowans of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, to ensure that others knew of the loss the state had suffered.
Sonia was an Afghanistan war veteran. After returning to her Linn County home, she became the “founding farmer” and, in the early years, chief cook and bottle washer of Feed Iowa First. Starting in 2011, the outreach addresses food insecurity by recruiting churches, businesses and volunteers to grow healthy vegetables on unused ground.
Feed Iowa First is committed to “responding to food insecurity…by growing culturally relevant vegetables for underserved communities….(believing) health equity begins with food access….simultaneously reducing waste by growing what is needed and wanted…(distributing) more than 45,000 pounds of fresh produce to economically disadvantaged households, immigrant and refugee families, and anyone in need through partnerships with local food pantries, health clinics, community fridges and low-income apartments. (The) model ensures households have consistent access to fresh and culturally appropriate produce to support nutrition security.”
I met Sonia through my friend Carolyn Scherf-Ryan, who was the local foods coordinator for Dubuque County ISU Extension. Sonia accepted our invitation to Dubuque in 2015 for a “Nature/Garden Trek” we co-sponsored with NAMI-Dubuque (National Alliance for Mental Illness.) We believed—and the COVID-19 pandemic proved again—that mental health and getting outdoors to be with nature are intimately connected. Growing your own food is part of that picture.
Sonia told us her gripping personal story. She was open about her struggles, but always focused on the needs of others. Sonia saw first-hand in Afghanistan how food is used as a weapon in war. She pledged to reduce food as an instrument of conflict at home. But she was astounded to learn that, even in Iowa, we import most of our food.
Sonia walked to Ames and earned a degree in agronomy. She calculated that she could feed every hungry person in Linn County a half cup of fresh vegetables every day on 400 acres, and she set out to try to do just that. Sonia was honored at the White House by President Barack Obama in 2014 as one of 10 Women Veteran Leader “Champions of Change.”
We had a chance to visit several times over the next three years. Sonia was eager to hear how programs like hers could be a model, supported and promoted by the state to expand and reach more people than she was able to do on her own.
As a member of the Iowa House Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environmental Protection, I and Linn County State Representative Art Staed convened a panel of county food policy council members from eastern Iowa to talk about how we could work together at the local level. Sonia testified.
Sonia’s passion made it impossible for me to abandon my own work for “local farms and foods” in Iowa, which has suffered from limited interest by members of the ruling party and many of the established farm groups (except the Iowa Farmers Union). So the Dubuque Area Land and Water Legacy in which I am involved is now a partner with the Iowa Food System Coalition in achieving their vision of Setting the Table for All Iowans.
I will write more about local foods in a future post. On this somber anniversary, I tell a different story.
Two days before she left us, Sonia posted on her Facebook page: “I’m pledging to do 22,000 of my most dreaded exercise (burpees) to raise funds to help veterans like myself who have PTSD. Can you help show your support?”
This question still haunts me: Did I reach out when I could have helped? More relevant now, can we still help today? To the extent many veterans are dealing with substance use challenges, Iowa and 97 counties have tens of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds sitting idle in banks somewhere.
In 2010, State Representative Elesha Gayman of Scott County and I were appointed to a special interim committee by State Representative Ray Zirkelbach of Jones County, an Iraq war veteran who was chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. We were to be joined by two members of the other party, including the ranking member, Representative Royd Chambers of O’Brien County, also a veteran. The committee was to come back in January 2011 with recommendations on how Iowa could be better prepared to serve returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
The committee had just heard gripping testimony from Army veteran Jake Krapfl from Dubuque County, who wrote a book titled Shadows of War, described by the publisher as a “poignant, brutally honest novel that deals with the horrors of war: the despair experienced by many soldiers during combat; the fears suffered long after their tour of duty is over; and the painful reminder that PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder—is no imaginary psychological diagnosis, but an invisible and often destructive condition that affects the lives of many soldiers, leaving them helpless to live normal, healthy lives and too often resulting in tragedy.”
My friends with the Awful Purdies recorded this tribute to Sonia.
Many years later, in 2023, Dawn Fleming and Amy Bahl of Dubuque sat down with National Guard Adjutant General Benjamin Corell and me to discuss another major issue haunting female veterans in particular: military sexual trauma, involving both sexual assault and harassment during military service.
On his visit to the state capitol, Jake Krapfl discussed some good ideas about how veterans themselves could be employed to help with outreach to their peers and assist in making sure that no one “fell through the cracks.” Maybe some could be farmers? (That’s why Sonia helped start the Farmer Veteran Coalition.)
But the task force never met. Zirkelbach lost his re-election bid in November 2010 after Republicans falsely claimed in TV ads that he voted to raise taxes on old people, poor people, sick people. Republicans gained control of the Iowa House. Royd Chambers, who became chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, never responded when I asked if he planned to continue the task force.
Earlier that year, some 3,000 citizen soldiers from the National Guard’s 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, deployed overseas in its largest mobilization since World War II. In May, 130 soldiers from Company A of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, had a send-off ceremony in Dubuque County.
As the only state legislator present, I was asked to speak. I was not prepared. I heard myself tell the soldiers and their families: “There are two things you should not have to worry about while you are away: Whether your loved ones are taken care of while you are gone, and whether or not we will be ready for you when you come home.”
Iowa’s elected leaders were miserly in the state’s preparation and response then. Now the state even pulls support for disabled veteran programs.
Fortunately, veterans themselves have stepped up to raise resources privately for self-help initiatives. In Dubuque, Jim Wagner and Al Rowell started the Veterans Freedom Center. Christina Schauer, Dawn Fleming, and others started Tri-State Women Warriors. The headwinds they are now facing: Trump Administration Plan to Cut 80,000 VA Jobs.
Will Iowa step up now? Are we ready to finally bring soldiers like Sonia Kendrick Stover all the way home?
After that 2010 National Guard send-off ceremony, a mother of one of the young soldiers approached me. “Those were brave words you said. Can I have your card?” I gave her my card. “I will be calling you if your words don’t come true,” she said.
I have dreaded the sound of my ringing phone ever since.