Statewide Iowa (RI) – Iowa’s six regional food banks have received enough donations this month to trigger the one million dollars in state funding Governor Reynolds pledged to match that increase in contributions.
The state’s largest food bank serves 55 counties and will get about $475,000 from the state.
Food Bank of Iowa spokeswoman Annette Hacker says to put that in perspective, the organization spent well over half a million dollars just this week buying food.
Hacker says the managers of some of the food pantries served by the Des Moines-based Food Bank of Iowa estimate the number of people coming through their doors has doubled and in some cases tripled so far this month.
State officials announced Thursday that by sometime today all 130,000 Iowa households that are signed up for SNAP benefits should have the money delivered to their electronic benefit cards.
Chris Ackman is a spokesman for the HACAP Food Reservoir in Hiawatha that serves nine eastern Iowa counties.
Ackman says in just the past six weeks, the HACAP Food Bank spent nearly a third of their yearly food purchasing budget.
Hacker, the spokeswoman for the state’s largest food bank, says it’s clear challenging times are ahead.
Valerie Petersen, associate director of the Food Bank of Siouxland in northwest Iowa, says part of the spike in food demand is coming from older Iowans.
When SNAP benefits weren’t delivered earlier this month, the Food Bank of Siouxland in northwest Iowa saw local food pantry visits almost double, but at the same time Petersen says she saw more volunteers come in to help, companies hosted more food drives, and people increased their donations.
The other three food banks that distribute food in Iowa are the River Bend Food Bank in Davenport, Northeast Iowa Food Bank in Waterloo and Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha.
KIWA Staff Photo
