Articles Tagged: Food insecurity

Starting Thursday, Americans in five states — including Iowa — who get government help paying for groceries will see new restrictions on soda, candy and other foods they can buy with those benefits.

Iowa announced on Monday that it will return to a federal summer food assistance program. The announcement came on the same day a report made available to The Gazette showed Iowa’s program in 2025 fell well short of reaching the number of children that the federal program would have.

Service providers say delays in food assistance only highlighted larger issues of food access in Iowa and across the country.

Johnson County plans to give out $230,000 in Social Services Emergency Food and Housing grants next month.

The Saturday event in Iowa City offered breakfast and speeches, while collecting food and monetary donations for a local pantry.

Iowa households that rely on food assistance will begin receiving their long-delayed November SNAP benefits after Congress ended the 43-day federal government shutdown, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday.

About 260,000 Iowans receive SNAP benefits to keep hunger at bay. In October, for the first time in SNAP’s history, the federal government decided that the government shutdown extended to the vital program.

Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson met with veterans in Cedar Rapids about efforts to end the record-long government shutdown, ensure SNAP and military pay, reform ACA subsidies, and preserve the Senate filibuster as a bipartisan “guardrail.”

A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration Thursday to find the money to fully fund SNAP benefits for November.

Under new federal guidance, only households receiving the maximum SNAP benefit will get half their usual amount. Most Iowa families will see far less, and some may receive nothing at all.

Cedar Rapids City Council members later this month will vote on whether to direct $25,000 to an area food bank.

Iowa GOP Congerssman Randy Feenstra, newly in the 2026 Iowa governor’s race, toured a Cedar Rapids food pantry Tuesday as the federal shutdown halts food aid for thousands of Iowans. Feenstra praised local “neighbors helping neighbors,” defended his campaign rollout, and said he’ll debate his Republican rivals while urging Congress to reopen the government.

Bread and Buttered bakery has been leading the charge at NewBo City Market for free food assistance as others shore up donations to food banks hit hard this month.

It’s not clear how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly beneficiaries will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states.

As the shutdown disrupts food aid and open enrollment begins, Iowa Democrats Zach Wahls and Josh Turek urged Republicans to act on health care and hunger. Hinson’s campaign countered that Democrats are “using vulnerable Iowans as leverage” in the standoff.