Iowa food banks facing record demand call on Congress to prioritize SNAP benefits

Over the last three years, the North Liberty Community Pantry has witnessed a 70 percent increase in the number of families needing assistance putting food on the table.

“And they are visiting more than twice as frequently as they used to,” said food pantry Executive Director Ryan Bobst. “This year we will surpass serving 3,000 unique people for the first time in our nearly 40-year history. Each month that goes by, we continue to set new distribution and service records."

Consistently heightened food insecurity in Iowa has put growing pressure and strain on food banks and pantries across the state. Food banks, food pantries and other anti-hunger organizations continue to witness record-breaking numbers of Iowans seeking assistance, said Luke Elzinga, board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition and policy and advocacy manager at the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Network.

Faced with rising levels of hunger and food insecurity, a group of 18 Iowa-based advocates have joined a national effort urging Congress to prioritize protecting and strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, in the upcoming farm bill. The SNAP program provides benefits for low-income households to buy groceries.

Download: SNAP-Joint-Letter-July-2024.pdf

The Iowa group — which also includes the Coralville Community Food Pantry, Corridor Community Action Network and Southeast Linn Community Center — joined more than 1,400 food banks, pantries and other anti-hunger groups across the country in a letter urging Congress to protect the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent changes to the Thrifty Food Plan to raise SNAP benefits.

About 257,000 Iowans are now enrolled in SNAP, the lowest amount in nearly 16 years.

The TFP determines how SNAP benefits are calculated. The 2021 update to the TFP amounted to a 25 percent increase in SNAP benefits, the largest expansion in the program’s 45-year history. Republicans have said the update ignored long-standing precedent to be cost-neutral, and was done without the input of Congress.

House Agriculture Committee Chair U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, has insisted the next farm bill restore precedent by placing guardrails on the way SNAP payments are determined to ensure budget neutrality. Such a proposal would reduce future outlays by $30 billion over the next decade. Democrats have called it a cut and made clear that any reductions in SNAP spending would cross a red line.

Senate Democrats’ proposed farm bill framework protects SNAP benefit levels and purchasing power through the Thrifty Food Plan by continuing the five-year re-evaluation to the TFP included in the bipartisan 2018 farm bill.

The USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan estimates the cost of a healthy diet at the lowest price point and is used to determine SNAP benefit amounts. The Thrifty Food Plan was modernized in 2021, as directed in the 2018 bill. The average daily SNAP benefit increased from $4.25 per person to $5.45 in fiscal 2022.

In Iowa, daily SNAP benefits in fiscal 2023 average less than $5.58 per person.

Iowa food banks and other anti-hunger groups in the state say a cost-neutral plan would deepen America’s hunger crisis.

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“The level of need among Iowans is rising, and current resources are not adequate for families struggling to make ends meet,” said Mandi Remington, director of Corridor Community Action Network.

Food banks and food pantries began experiencing a dramatic increase in demand in April 2022, when temporary pandemic-era changes to benefit amounts ended.

“We have seen an explosion in need from neighbors that were previously surviving,” Bobst said of the North Liberty pantry. “We had one family come in earlier this year to share they used to receive SNAP assistance while both adults were working, then after expanded eligibility expired, they lost all their benefits and came to the pantry for the first time — all while both adults were still working.”

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At a time when living expenses are on the rise, the Iowa-based groups say it is imperative that Congress strengthen SNAP, including by increasing benefits, expanding access, permitting the purchase of hot foods and simplifying eligibility requirements.

“SNAP plays a critical role in ensuring families have sufficient and nutritious food,” Bobst said. “The expanded programs during the heart of the COVID pandemic showed what a success a healthy food assistance program can look like. Now, not only are families battling inflation and increased costs of basic goods and housing, but they also have less access to resources to meet their daily basic needs.”

U.S. House lawmakers in May, during a markup of the chamber’s version of the farm bill, fiercely debated whether Republican attempts to freeze changes to the USDA food aid programs were “cuts” amid broader tensions over whether the bill is bipartisan enough to pass.

House Republicans contend SNAP benefits will continue to increase annually due to inflation, and that their bill restores congressional intent from the 2018 farm bill to make revisions cost-neutral.

Additionally, the House farm bill establishes a separate food box pilot program to supplement the nutrition of low-income households.

“The farm bill does not cut SNAP benefits, and we must continue to improve food security and nutrition for Iowa families as they struggle to make ends meet due to inflation caused by Biden’s reckless spending,” Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson said in a statement to The Gazette.

“I will always work to improve food security and nutrition for Iowa families, fight fraud that takes away benefits from those who most need them, and focus on upward mobility,” Hinson, of Marion, said. “I am so thankful for food banks and other charitable organizations in Iowa that do incredible work to combat food insecurity and I will continue working with them to ensure no Iowan — especially children — goes hungry.”

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