Step up, help feed hungry Iowans

The Gazette Editorial Board

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No state in the country can beat us in the production of corn, soybeans, pork and eggs. So it seems somehow doubly shameful when Iowans go hungry.

Yet local pantry organizers, their resources already stretched thin by increasing demand, are having to deal with cutbacks in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Commodity Supplemental Food Program - a long-reliable source of healthy, inexpensive dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables.

While the government should play a role in helping those without enough resources to buy food, local residents need to step up and help fill the gap, at least until Congress sorts out its budget mess, the economy is more robust and unemployment eases.

It's estimated that more than 382,000 Iowans - one in 10 - have limited or uncertain daily access to adequate food. They rely on Iowa's community food pantries to help mitigate that uncertainty.

Across the state, the Department of Human Services says food assistance to households was up 12 percent over last year, a number that's fairly consistent with what we're seeing locally.

In Linn County, more than 13,000 households have received some form of food assistance in the past 12 months. In Johnson County, 5,288 households.

Local food pantry workers say it's always a stretch for them to meet community needs in the summer, when children are out of school and donations are relatively meager. Lingering unemployment and sluggish recovery are putting even more pressure on those organizations this year.

And now, cuts to federal food programs are making it even more expensive for local food pantries to purchase much-needed provisions.

“We are facing the prospect of bare shelves,” Jennifer Schulte, external relations coordinator for Hawkeye Area Community Action Program's Food Reservoir, recently told reporters.

HACAP buys food in bulk and distributes it to 100 member agencies in seven counties. Last year, it distributed 1.8 million pounds of food they had purchased at reduced rates.

More than half came from the USDA program.

But that support was cut by 30 percent this year, and a U.S. House proposal calls for even steeper cuts. HACAP officials say if that bill passes, it will cost them an extra $632,138 a year to keep up the supply to their members.

It's a startling figure that has food programs rightly concerned.

For now, it's time for all Eastern Iowans to do their share. Donate money and goods to restock the shelves of local food pantries. Your fellow Iowans needn't go hungry.

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