Iowa food pantries buoy those in need, but facing new challenges

Kelli Greenland and her two children used food pantries more often than they ever have in 2021, and as a new year begins the Des Moines mom is filled with uncertainty.

Greenland said she visits one or two food pantries weekly to keep her children, Ethan, 8, and Skylynn, almost 6, fed. There seems to be less meat available these days, Greenland said, and she sometimes has trouble finding dairy-free options for Skylynn, who is lactose intolerant.

But most of her anxiety is over the likely end of the expanded federal child tax credit come this month.

“That program has been amazing,” Greenland said. “If it wasn’t for that program, I wouldn’t have gas to get to work, I wouldn’t have even the slightest amount of Christmas presents. … I was able to get the kids each a couple things, only because of that program. Between rent, electric, gas, you know, everyday life, bills, meds, all that — if it wasn’t for that program, I wouldn’t survive each month.”

Just like their clients, leaders of Iowa organizations that give food to people in need have their minds on this and other benefits that were created or expanded during the pandemic. Programs that put money and additional food benefits in people’s pockets, and made an unprecedented dent in American poverty, are either ending or could end soon. And that could mean a new explosion of food insecurity, leaders said.

For pantries, that prospect adds to uncertainty they have experienced because of staggering increases in freight and food costs this year, not to mention supply-chain disruptions that made it harder to keep their shelves stocked. Now the omicron coronavirus variant is the latest challenge.

Pantry operators and other Iowans, including Greenland, first spoke to IowaWatch about food insecurity issues a year ago, just as vaccinations began. Last month, Greenland said that her family has been through significant changes since the pandemic hit, and that food pantries kept her afloat.

Greenland works in customer service, and she held off on accepting a new job in March 2020 because she didn’t want Ethan, who has severe asthma, to contract the novel coronavirus. Greenland’s brother died on Jan. 27, 2021. A few days later, she left her husband. Greenland and her children now share a home with her parents and grandparents in Des Moines.

Most states have it worse than Iowa. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture surveys, Iowa in 2020 had the nation’s second-lowest proportion of households that were food-insecure, 6.9 percent. Mississippi had the highest rate, at over 15 percent.

But 6.9 percent is still over 90,000 Iowa households, and the state’s food pantries have stayed busy serving them. Advocates said they’re witnessing the poor getting poorer in 2021, and struggling even more as the pandemic lingers.

Jan Kosowski, director of the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry in Cedar Rapids, said she has seen an increase in homeless people using the pantry in the past year. Visitors sometimes ask to wash up, along with requesting food.

“We just have a lot of people who are struggling harder than what we’ve seen before,” Kosowski said.

Tami Nielsen is vice president of partners and programs with Food Bank of Iowa, which has six networks in the state.

Pantries already were busy battling hunger before the pandemic. Since it started, many have had more work and lots of new clients. “It’s not letting up,” Nielsen said.

Pantries buy in bulk, so price jumps that might not faze a typical family shopper add up quickly. “Canned green beans, which are one of our most- needed items, pre-COVID, they were 41 cents per can,” Nielsen said, “and now they’re about 78 cents per can.”

Add to that the cost of freight, which can run 50 percent above what it was a couple of years ago.

The Food Bank of Iowa network, from January through November 2021, had served the equivalent of over 38 million meals. When comparing parts of the network for which leaders have data for 2019 through 2021, the meal count for this year’s first 11 months is down from 2020’s heights but is still higher than in 2019.

Julie Palmer, director of Olivet Neighborhood Mission in Cedar Rapids, said the organization is seeing more people every week due to higher food costs.

“We are busy five days a week, with new households each day, with an average of 340 people per day visiting in the three hours we are open daily,” Palmer said.

Palmer said the organization hasn’t been able to rely on HACAP Food Reservoir as regularly for items such as milk, meat and eggs. These items need to be purchased from local grocers on a weekly basis, she added.

HACAP — the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program — has a food reservoir that distributes meals through organizations in seven Eastern Iowa counties, including Linn and Johnson.

Kim Guardado, HACAP’s food reservoir director, said cost and timing have been most apparent, along with supply chain issues. She said cost has risen about 14 percent.

“This puts a huge strain on our budget when the food we buy costs us so much more than we had planned,” Guardado said.

Kaila Rome, executive director of the North Liberty Community Pantry, said the longer lead times when products are being ordered wholesale has been noticeable.

“Some of our staples are just not as readily available as they used to be,” Rome said. At the same time, increased gas prices and higher grocery store prices have led to clients asking for a wider variety of items at the pantry so they can get their needs met at one place, Rome said.

Purchasing meat has been particularly challenging.

Guardado said that HACAP placed an order for hams for the holidays that got delayed and eventually was canceled because it was not slated to arrive until mid-January.

CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank in Iowa City also experienced challenges getting meat for families for the holidays — as it has throughout other parts of the year — said Krystal Kabela, the organization’s food bank program manager.

Luckily, Kabela said, the supply chain issues and increased prices have had a “minimal” impact to the food bank operation.

Federal benefits ending

Two big federal programs have made it easier for families with lower incomes to shop for their own food and other needs: an expanded child tax credit that in the second half of 2021 provided direct payments of up to $300 per child, and a higher cap for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits that can be used to buy food.

The tax credit is all but dead. The last payments went out last month; congressional Democrats had hoped to extend it through the Build Back Better Act but the future of that act is uncertain.

It’s not known how long the higher SNAP benefits will last — they will expire a month after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ emergency declaration related to the coronavirus expires. Reynolds has been renewing the declaration once a month.

Nielsen, with Food Bank of Iowa, said the average family will lose about $95 per month when that expires.

Guardado said HACAP’s Food Reservoir and the 169 partner organizations “are committed to providing food for our neighbors in need” as the child tax credit payments end and the SNAP benefits remain uncertain.

Rome said the North Liberty pantry has seen an increase in new families — and she predicts “an even bigger increase” with the end of the child tax credit.

“Federal support programs such as that and SNAP benefits help keep families independent and afloat and less reliant on food pantries during times of crisis,” Rome said.

Palmer said 35 percent of Olivet Neighborhood Mission’s monthly clients receive SNAP benefits. For its clients who do receive SNAP, it amounts to about $25 or less per month, Palmer said. She added many seniors over 60 do not get food stamps if they are already receiving disability benefits, so the food pantry has seen a “dramatic increase” in the number of people over 60 visiting it.

Food insecurity will persist

CommUnity's food bank has seen an increase in visits in the past few months, Kabela said.

The food bank had about 32,000 visits this year as of the end of November. CommUnity served 3,903 families in fiscal 2021, with 563 families visiting the food bank for the first time, for a total of nearly 31,400 visits, according to the nonprofit’s annual report.

Olivet Neighborhood Mission moved to being open seven days a week in early November, Palmer said. The pantry is part of the Emergency Food Assistance program.

“In this way, these households are able to utilize their financial earnings to take care of the increased costs of household items such as rent, utilities, gas and other necessities,” Palmer said. “We are so thankful to our donors who continue to give so that we can help our struggling neighbors.”

At the same time, organizations say they are having a harder time finding volunteers during the pandemic, and especially now it its omicron-fueled resurgence.

Palmer said it has been “challenging” to find volunteers on a consistent basis. “Only about 50 percent of our volunteers pre-COVID have returned,” she said.

Rome said the North Liberty pantry has seen a decrease in volunteers being able to come regularly, especially senior volunteers. “When we see increases in COVID cases in the community like we are now, our volunteer numbers tend to decline,” Rome said.

While the need for volunteers that food banks are facing are real and impact the ability of panties to meet local needs, Nielsen, of Food Bank of Iowa, said the most important things Iowans can do to make sure pantries hold up is to give money.

That “allows us to purchase food that’s greatly needed, like produce, protein, dairy,” she said. “We can really stretch the donor dollar more than if you go to the grocery store and buy particular items — although we do love that you can give food, if that’s your preference.”

Izabela Zaluska of The Gazette contributed to this report.

Nicole Grundmeier is a freelance reporter and writer for IowaWatch. This story was produced by the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch, a nonprofit, online news website that collaborates with news organizations to produce explanatory and investigative reporting. Read more at IowaWatch.org.