Lansing Iowa Food Trust (LIFT) is finalist in Reader’s Digest “Nicest Places in America” contest
Public can vote until July 21
Reader’s Digest has revealed the 50 “Nicest Places in America,” the result of a national crowd-sourced effort to uncover places where people are kind and treat each other with respect. With one nomination from each state being selected as a finalist, the Lansing Iowa Food Trust (LIFT) in Lansing was selected as the contest finalist for the state of Iowa and the public can now vote to determine which finalist gets a cover story in the November issue of Reader’s Digest.
In an era of unprecedented cultural and political divides, “Nicest Places in America” is Reader’s Digest’s response. For the third annual search, Reader’s Digest editors sifted through over 1,000 stories of kindness submitted over 31 days from across America to name 50 finalists, one from each state.
“This year we sifted through over 1,000 stories of places where people stick together because of kindness, and these are the best from each state,” said Reader’s Digest Editor-in-Chief Bruce Kelley. “In doing so, we learned something amazing, which is that no matter what’s going on in the news or social media, the truth is that there’s goodness all around us. We hope these stories lift spirits and inspire all of us to be better neighbors, friends and family.”
The nomination story for LIFT reads, in part: “When folks in Lansing, Iowa, a town of 1,000 people nestled on the banks of the Mississippi in the northeast corner of the state, realized that some of their neighbors couldn’t afford to feed their families, they came together with a solution: the Lansing Iowa Food Trust, or LIFT. Like many food banks across the country, it gives residents in need a place to get groceries for free. People go hungry everywhere, every day. In this tiny town, help is here, and everyone pitches in, even guests.”
To read more on the LIFT nomination, as well as to read the complete stories of all the finalists, along with the hundreds of other nominees, visit rd.com/nicest.
Voting can also be accomplished through rd.com/nicest. On that page, click on the state of Iowa in the U.S. map to bring up the LIFT nomination and complete story. At the bottom of that write-up is a “Vote for Iowa” bar in red, but it requires the input of an email address and voting is limited to one time per day per email address. Public voting is open through July 21. One finalist will get a cover story in the November issue of Reader’s Digest magazine. Nine other of the finalist locations will also be featured in that November publication.
