Food insecurity is growing in Eastern Iowa

One in seven children and one in 10 people face food insecurity in Eastern Iowa. Pantries across the region have been seeing increased need month after month. We regularly hear stories from our partners about the number of new people in their lines or how working families continue to seek help because they can’t make ends meet.

We hear about veterans who have retirement funds but still need help each month. Our pantry partners, who are mostly retired volunteers, are giving so much of their time to run the pantry while also needing to receive help with their groceries.

There are legitimate concerns over federal funding and whether food banks and our partners will have enough food. Over the past several years we’ve see food insecurity rise.

For over 40 years the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program Food Reservoir has been providing food to pantries and meal sites across the region. As a community action agency and food bank we often ask ourselves what needs to change.

Do we need to distribute food in a different way? Do we need to find more opportunities to educate the community on what is already being done? Or do we need to look deeper into the causes of poverty for solutions on how to affect change in a bigger way?

It all starts with education. Do you know that the HACAP Food Reservoir, along with our partners, pick up food donations at hundreds of sites each month? We receive support from almost all grocery stores including Walmart, Sam’s, Hy-Vee, Fareway, Aldi, and Costco as well as many convenience stores such as Kwik Star and Kum & Go. We rescue food from ending up in the landfill.

We collect from large donors, such as Sam’s Club, all the way down to your small-town Dollar General. In addition, we get regular deliveries from food manufacturers and distribution centers like cereal from General Mills or various kinds of granola bars from Quaker Oats. In addition to food drives, donated food makes up about 60% of the food we distribute.

Another main source of food for our food bank is the USDA. About 20% of our food comes from the The Emergency Food Assistance Program. The USDA provides many diverse types of nutritious foods. Mostly these are fruits, vegetables, frozen and canned meat as well as pasta, pasta sauce and dairy products.

The third type of food we have available is purchased food. Purchased food makes up the remaining 20% of food we distribute. We strive to buy healthy foods and get the best price possible. We also buy food grown or produced in Iowa. Some examples are milk from Dan & Debbie’s, broccoli from Nupolu’s Emerging Farm, or yogurt from Countryview Dairy.

All our food is distributed through nearly 300 partner agencies in our seven-county service area in Eastern Iowa. Many of these partners are food pantries but they may also be a meal site, child care program, backpack program, health care partner or a mobile food pantry.

Food insecurity can look different from person to person. One family may visit one of our partner agencies looking for a small amount of food to supplement their needs, while another family may be looking for groceries to meet most of their family’s needs for that week or month. This also tells us families need more than food to create a stable household.

To address some of the root causes of poverty, we help families get connected to existing resources like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), WIC and Head Start. We complete mental health screens because when you take care of your mental health, you can also care for others.

There should be practical job opportunities so people can earn a wage that supports their family. There could be training opportunities for people who need to learn a new skill to be employed.

Many families are one crisis away from being in a really bad place — An unexpected medical diagnosis, unexpected loss of income, a car breaks down, a weather event destroys their home, etc. These used to be the reasons we saw people visit pantry lines, but now there are record numbers of people regularly using pantries who are working and still need support. It is a symptom of a broken system that has to change.

Kim Guardado is food Reservoir Director for the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program.