River Bend Foodbank's mission is to lead the community-wide effort to end hunger in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. They do this by leveraging partnerships to help people in need stabilize their lives, engaging the public in hunger issues, advocating on behalf of hungry people, and the traditional food bank role of recovering and distributing surplus food through a network of hunger-relief agency partners.

Founded in 1982, River Bend Foodbank supplies food to more than 300 agency partners including food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, residential treatment facilities, day care centers, and senior centers. Collectively, these programs are the food safety net for tens of thousands of struggling individuals and families in the 22 counties served by River Bend Foodbank in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. In its first year of operation, 190,000 pounds of food were given out. In 2016, over 11 million meals were distributed to hungry people.