Gary’s Foods was the recipient of an “Above and Beyond” Award from Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group at Heritage Days.

For the Dietrich family who has run the business for numerous years, the award was a confirmation of doing what is right for the community.

“It’s rewarding to see that award, recognizing us for the efforts citizens have helped us support,” said Peter Dietrich.

Peter said many of their round-ups over the years have been facilitated by the community support they’ve seen.

Denny Dietrich said they are not used to tooting their own horn for the many contributions and accomplishments they make in the community.

The round-ups are one of the ways that Gary’s Foods has had an impact locally, supporting many individuals and their causes.

“The round-ups at Gary’s have been incredibly helpful for our organization,” said Nicole McAlexander, director of Southeast Linn Community Center. “It is amazing how much the spare change adds up! But besides the financial donation, the round-ups are wonderful for helping us reach a broader swath of the community and raising awareness about the work we do.”

McAlexander said that the round-ups are a fundraiser that doesn’t use much of the limited staff or volunteer time of SELCC, while still helping the pantry, and the team at Gary’s Foods is always easy to work with.

Jacob Lindauer, director of the Lisbon Mount Vernon Ambulance service, said donations from round-up have helped complete the purchase of two ambulances to better serve the community.

“The Dietrich family was more than willing to take us on when we approached them to support our initial campaign to buy a new ambulance in 2019, and has been reserving the month of September for LMVAS since,” Lindauer said. “Since 2019, the Dietrich family and the customers at Gary’s have helped LMVAS raise more than $37,000.00 to support new ambulances and training.”

“Gary’s round-up is what let’s us take on the big projects, like redoing the kitchen in the lodge,” said Gail Brown with Friends of the Palisades-Kepler State Park. “Even the smaller donations matter, though. Donations of water, bananas and food for the 5K race means the Friends have lower expenses, ending in more profit: their generosity also means we are able to donate the surplus to South East Linn.

“Denny is a boy scout leader, and he understands the value of our state parks. He shows this in his generosity.”

Superintendent Matt Leeman said in his short time in Mount Vernon, he’s seen the many different round ups and support that Gary’s Foods has given to the community.

Peter said that the round-ups started shortly after the MDA fundraiser one year as something to test out, as people were already rounding up change for the MDA.

“It took a while for our point of sales system to catch on to what we were doing, but it’s now so well oiled that it’s easy just to continue those,” Denny said.

“A lot of the causes we’ve supported have just been people who approached us about doing one for their organization,” Peter said. “There have been a couple we’ve tried that didn’t go over well that we wouldn’t try again, but our experience has been if it’s a cause the community supports, they’re likely to say yes to rounding up.”

Another huge financial donation in the past few years has been their support of the Washington Elementary School library.

“Gary’s Foods has been instrumental in funding the recent renovation of the Washington Elementary library,” said Megan Casey, teacher librarian at Washington Elementary school. “Initially, even the thought of raising $100,000 through community donations and grant funding was a daunting idea, but Gary’s was on board from the start. The Dietrich family was the catalyst to pushing this project forward, stepping up to donate $25,000. Additionally, the library was invited to participate in a round up, contributing even more to the renovation project. Gary’s consistently pulls through for Mount Vernon. They believe in our students, our community, and Washington Elementary will forever be grateful for the Dietrich family and all of the good that they do for our town.”

Denny said that funding the library renovations were important to them because of knowing how crucial reading is for the future, and getting a good start at reading at younger age levels helps.

“It really helps children build confidence,” Garret Dietrich said.

Peter said that what spurred him to support that cause was seeing some of the same equipment in the library from when he was in elementary school, and knowing a refresh or new accommodations for students would help them use the library more.

Garret concurred, noting that the store has made accommodations for some of their employees over the years as well, and when doing so, those employees usually turn into employees they can count on to be there for the store.

And the Dietrich family’s involvement goes just beyond financial donations. Denny has been a scout leader with the Boy Scouts for more than 30 years now.

“When my kids aged out of the program, I still stuck with it,” Denny said.

Denny’s also been involved in the Mount Vernon-Lisbon and now Linn County Rotary program (having served as a past president of Rotary), he’s been involved in Knights of Columbus and is a long serving member on the Iowa Grocers Industry Association board. He was a retailer of the year in 2013.

Peter and Garret have been coaches for their children’s parks and recreation teams as well over the years, and Peter is an Eagle Scout.

“It’s so fun to have those kids stop in to our store,” Garret said. “They may not remember our first names, but they always recognize us as their coaches. They come up and tell us about the accomplishments they’re still making in that sport.”

Denny said that Mount Vernon is a nice community, and one he has been happy to be a member of for several decades.

One of the organizations that Gary’s Foods says has always been appreciative of their help has been SELCC.

“It’s interesting that during the school year, a lot off times those picking up donations are just retired people, but come the summer, it’s those same people and their grandchildren,” Peter said. “They are so easy to work with and always grateful for our ongoing support.”

That appreciation goes both ways.

“The support we receive from Gary’s is crucial to the success of our food pantry,” McAlexander said. “In addition to the annual round-up, Gary’s contributes as a platinum sponsor annually. They also make it easy for us to make bulk purchases of food throughout the year. Over one third of the food we distribute at our food pantry comes from Gary’s. Through their generosity, Gary’s and the Dietrich family are helping to fight hunger in our community every day.”