Jackie Hodgins talks about the neighborhood help shelf she and her family set up on the side of their house in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. Hodgins tries to stock the free pantry often with non-perishable food items and toiletries, but also receives donations from community members. She says things like shampoo and feminine products are the items that are taken the most. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

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CEDAR RAPIDS — Jackie Hodgins has been working to help combat food insecurity in her own small way since 2020, by providing free food in her Cedar Rapids neighborhood through what she calls a Help Shelf — a small cupboard fixed to the outside of her house, which she keeps stocked with food and other necessities like toilet paper, for anyone to take when needed.

She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was motivated by her faith and wanted to be able to provide whatever support she could in her area, and give others the opportunity to help as well by leaving donations on the shelf.

A sign for the neighborhood help shelf is displayed as Jackie Hodgins talks about how she enjoys that the shelf helps her neighbors no matter what financial situation they are in during an interview at her house in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Now, with another national food crisis just around the corner as the ongoing federal government shutdown may cause federal food assistance funds not to be distributed in November, for the first time in the history of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Hodgins said she’s been worried about whether her little contribution is enough.

“I felt a really big burden as far as what is the best way to help ... I’m a firm believer that it’s important for your neighbors to know that you care about them,” Hodgins said. “While I think that it’s great to donate — there are so many great, great charities and food pantries — I thought, well, I could just focus our family’s resources on trying to spend the entire month of November keeping our own Help Shelf stocked, knowing that it will help those immediately around me.“

The neighborhood help shelf sits on the side of Jackie Hodgins’ house in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. Hodgins tries to stock the free pantry often with non-perishable food items and toiletries, but also receives donations from community members. With the potential pause in SNAP benefits, Hodgins says community resources like neighborhood pantries are important to help out community members. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

How can community members help?

Hodgins isn’t alone in wanting to support her community but not knowing where to start. Kim Guardado, director of the food bank run by the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, or HACAP, said that the nonprofit — which provides food for most of the food pantries in the Linn County area — has received a lot of calls in the past couple weeks from people wanting to know the best ways to provide support.

Kim Guardado, HACAP food reservoir director — Kim Guardado, HACAP Food Reservoir director

The short answer, Guardado said, is however you can.

“People can help in whatever way makes the most sense for them,” Guardado said. “If they are going to give dollars, those dollars are super helpful at the food bank because we are buying a lot of food right now. But, I will also say that our pantries need those dollars just as much.”

Monetary donations tend to go farther for food pantries and food banks than food donations, since the nonprofits can often purchase food in bulk and at cheaper prices than the average consumer. But food donations also can be vital when there’s a sudden increase in need, since it gets the food on the shelves faster than waiting for the arrival of bulk purchases.

“We’ve got a lot of food coming, and we’re planning for more food coming next week and the week after that, but certainly if people are going to go to a store and buy some food and take it to a pantry, that’s the quickest way for pantries to keep their shelves stocked,” Guardado said.

Raymond Siddell, executive director of Together We Achieve, a food pantry in southwest Cedar Rapids, said that the pantry has already started to see an increase in donations made through the pantry’s online donation page or through checks sent in the mail, but it has also seen an increase in people needing food.

Raymond Siddell, founder and president of Together We Achieve, at the organization’s food warehouse and distribution site in southwest Cedar Rapids on Oct. 2, 2024. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

“We have had a few conversations with people who are just wondering what the landscape looks like going forward, so that they can try to figure out how to assist. We also had a donor who wanted to visit our location who is considering a multiyear donation on the heels of what is currently going on,” Siddell said.

Another way that community members can provide support to local food banks and pantries is through volunteering their time. Siddell said that as the demand for food increases in coming months, Together We Achieve and other pantries are likely going to need more hands for simple things like stocking shelves, as well as help filling more specific roles, like translators.

He encouraged anyone with interest in volunteering to reach out to whichever pantry they may be interested in working with to talk about what skill sets they have and how they can support.

Linn County recently launched a comprehensive online food pantry map for Linn County that includes information about each pantry, like services provided, hours of operation, location address, contact information, and directions to the pantry location. The map is designed to help those seeking food assistance find the resources they need, but can also be used as a reference point for those looking help who want to locate their nearest pantries.

Warehouse driver and aide Brian Harkness moves a pallet of food into a truck to be distributed to local non-profits at HACAP in Hiawatha on Oct. 23. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette) — Warehouse driver and aide Brian Harkness moves a pallet of food into a truck to be distributed to local nonprofits at HACAP in Hiawatha on Oct. 23. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Pantries and food banks are also encouraging community members to reach out to their government officials to advocate for SNAP benefits to be resumed as quickly as possible.

“People that are facing food insecurity ... need to know that they’re not alone, and one way to do that is to reach out to our elected officials and let them know to open up the government,“ Guardado said. “People can be so divided, but some of the messages about whose fault it is, why the government is closed, are not important to us when we are trying to feed people. We want people to be respected and have the food they need to be respected, and we don’t want to bring politics into that.”

A pallet of canned vegetables sits out at HACAP in Hiawatha on Oct. 23. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

What is the state doing to help?

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday that the state will provide interim support for Iowa’s food banks and pantries starting Monday, by using Iowa Health and Human Service funds to match all cash donations to Iowa’s six regional food banks — including HACAP — up to $1 million.

Iowa HHS will also be recruiting and deploying volunteers to support food assistance operations across the state, and Reynolds has ordered the Iowa National Guard to be available as needed to help with food distribution statewide.

“Government plays an important role in supporting its citizens, but we each have a personal responsibility to care for the people in our communities, especially those in need,” Reynolds said in a press release about the state support.

Reynolds’ office will hold a press conference Friday morning to answer questions about the state’s support plan for food assistance.

How are businesses stepping up?

Several businesses have stepped in on a statewide and local level to help provide food for those who may be losing their SNAP benefits in November.

Reynolds’ office, in its press release about the state government’s support plan, also mentioned donations that have been made by Iowa businesses in response to the impending SNAP shutdown. Iowa’s three Medicaid managed care organizations — Iowa Total Care, Molina Healthcare of Iowa, and Wellpoint Iowa — each have committed to donate $100,000 to the state’s food banks. Fareway and the Iowa Pork Producers Association teamed up to donate $20,000 worth of ground pork to food banks across the state, and Hy-Vee has donated $100,000 to food banks in its regions, which includes Iowa.

In Cedar Rapids, many local businesses, including all Marion and Cedar Rapids Hy-Vee stores, are hosting food drives to support HACAP’s food bank. Multiple local restaurants have also offered to provide meals to those in need.

Guardado said that corporations can help support in a lot of the same ways that individuals can, but on a much larger scale, through food donations from hosting drives, monetary donations, and by organizing employees to volunteer together at HACAP or a local food pantry.

“Another piece of that is our food donors, so those local manufacturers. We have great relationships with our manufacturers in our service area and we’re already collecting additional loads of cereal from General Mills and things like that, which are going to help out a lot,” Guardado said. “The place where we are a little bit behind is donations of protein ... We don’t have any large meat producers in our food bank territory, so we are not able to go solicit donations from those folks.”

Food providers already seeing an increase in need

Despite the increase in support that food banks and pantries have been seeing as community members prepare for the SNAP shutdown, providers are concerned that it won’t be enough. Guardado said that over the last week the HACAP food bank has fielded around 15 to 20 calls a day — normally they would receive no more than two or three calls each day — from people asking about where to find food if their SNAP benefits don’t come through.

Siddell said that Together We Achieve has already seen a notable increase in overall visits to the pantry, as well as an increase in people who are visiting for the first time and who are checking the box on their intake forms to indicate that they receive SNAP benefits.

“We are seeing an increase over the last week and a half of individuals who I think are just preparing, who had heard the news and wanted to make sure that they were already identifying resources and gap fillers,” Siddell said.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com

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