Food pantries need help facing high demand

This week, The Gazette’s Emily Andersen introduced us to Edith Chase.

Chase, who lives in Cedar Rapids, is retired and living on a fixed income. She has struggled to cover the cost of food and other needs. So, she relied on the Olivet Neighborhood Mission, which housed Linn County’s largest food pantry.

But at the end of August, Olivet closed. So she went to the Together We Achieve, the second-largest pantry. At the end of August, Together We Achieve announced it would close unless it swiftly raised $50,000 in an emergency fundraiser.

Her story is a common one. Fortunately, Together We Achieve met its goal. The pantry is searching for other steady funding streams. How will the pantry afford to run next year. Who knows? Since 2020, Together We Achieve has distributed nearly 2 million pounds of food. Its closure would be a major loss. And now, winter is coming along with the holidays, which may further boost demand.

What we do know is demand for food has risen, along with its cost. Demand for food help has been growing since extra pandemic-related benefits ended in 2022. More food pantry patrons rely on them as a primary source of food, not to supplement their food budget.

Food pantry providers across Iowa find themselves in a similar predicament. Too little food, too much demand and inadequate funding. Bringing down food prices would help, but that’s outside of factors pantries can control.

“We'd love to see the city and the county get involved in some of these solutions. We'd love to see an opportunity for nonprofits and faith-based organizations to work together to provide more access to families in the community. I think partnerships, and that private-public partnership, is really the key to make this successful, for this to happen,” Kim Guardado, Food Reservoir Director for the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, or HACAP, which operates a food bank that supplies food to pantries across Eastern Iowa, told Andersen.

Public investments and more coordination among organizations clearly would help. Some of it is already happening. Linn County provided $250,000 in grants paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The grants were made to address gaps in the local food system.

Given the statewide reach of these problems, the state should make a larger investment in pantries. After shutting down pandemic food help early, changing the rules to make it tougher to receive food assistance and turning down $29 million in federal payments to help feed kids during this past summer, it’s really the least state leaders can do.

Of course, we can all help by donating to local pantries. But it will take large investments and a plan to work together to keep the system running and providing food to people who need it.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com