Changing the food insecurity conversation
Food bank and pantry leaders say problems that lead to food insecurity need to be addressed
AmeriCorps volunteers unload trucks at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank in Waterloo. Photo submitted by the Iowa Food Bank Association
Nothing that was done last year to help people in need did anything to address the issues that lead to food insecurity, and it’s time to begin fixing that, said Matt Unger, CEO of the Des Moines Area Religious Council.
As food insecurity soared in 2020 with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic pain it inflicted through business closures and layoffs, the spotlight was cast on helping those who may not have enough to feed their families. Food pantries quickly adapted to find new ways to get food in the hands of those who needed it most.
While the numbers of those considered food insecure have declined in recent months compared with the height of the pandemic, with COVID-19 vaccines and the economy beginning to rebound, some people in the food bank and food pantry system say they are closely watching for signs that demand could increase again as the delta variant of the virus tightens its grip on the country. The ending of assistance programs put in place to help those in need is also of concern.
As those in the food bank and food pantry system remain diligent and prepare for what could lie ahead, they say the time has come to have serious conversations about why food insecurity is such a problem in our communities, and to begin taking action to solve those issues.
Iowa Stops Hunger
Business Publications Corp. and its publications — including the Business Record, dsm Magazine and ia Magazine — are kicking off their second year of the Iowa Stops Hunger campaign to bring attention to the plight of those who are food insecure, and to shed light on those who have made it their mission to help.
Last year we learned what food insecurity is, who is affected and who the faces are on the front lines of the fight to put food on the tables of people who need it most. We saw how a network of volunteers came together to find new, innovative ways to make sure no one went hungry as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across our state, closing businesses and forcing many people to seek help for the first time.
This year, as businesses open up and events return to in-person gatherings, the fight against food insecurity is continuing. Over the next 12 months, we will continue to facilitate conversations about food insecurity. We will strive to tell the stories of those who, all too often, are forced to make tough decisions about feeding their family. And we hope we will inspire you to get involved to join us and seek answers that can lead to change.
“It’s going to take more than just hunger-fighting organizations having those conversations to make that happen, said Unger, the leader of DMARC, an interfaith organization with a core membership of over 125 congregations from five faith traditions. DMARC manages a food pantry network consisting of 14 pantry sites, a mobile food pantry and two food warehouses.
The numbers
A year ago, the number of people identified as food insecure jumped 51% to nearly 460,000 people in Iowa. According to Feeding America, a national nonprofit network of 200 food banks, including six in Iowa, that number has dropped to just over 407,000 in March, the most recent data available.
Despite that decline, food insecurity is still 33% higher than it was before the pandemic. In 2019, the number of people in Iowa who were food insecure totaled about 305,000.
Iowa food banks distributed more than 50 million meals last year, up from about 33 million in 2019. Applications for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits jumped 168% in the early weeks of the pandemic.
Even though some improvement in numbers has been seen, Linda Gorkow, executive director of the Iowa Food Bank Association, said those in the food bank and food pantry system can’t take their foot off the gas.
Gorkow said part of the message that must continue is that food insecurity did not begin with the pandemic, and it will continue long after the pandemic ends.
“We felt the dramatic increase at the beginning of the pandemic, but it continues on and it’s work we do daily, so we’re always ... working to educate the community about hunger,” she said. “Having one food-insecure child in Iowa is not acceptable. Zero would be the ideal number, so we continue to fight.”
Workers at the Cedar Valley Food Pantry prepare carts for collection at the pantry in Waterloo. Photo submitted by the Iowa Food Bank Association
Keeping the conversation moving forward
“As the stories came out last year of the awareness of people needing food at a time when they may never have used food pantries, I think that opened a lot of people’s eyes,” Gorkow said. “What we have been doing for 30 years is awareness, but that continual conversation of it doesn’t go away just because things are going back to ‘normal.’ The conversation is continually about whether hunger is acceptable in our communities and in a state that provides and feeds the world. There’s a lot of messages we need to continue and share when it’s not in the headlines all the time.”
Michelle Book, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Iowa, which serves a 55-county area, said that while food insecurity remains well above pre-pandemic levels, she’s hopeful that heightened awareness that was created last year will help keep the conversation about food insecurity moving forward.
“We all know someone who lost their job, or lost valuable hours or their career dreams during COVID,” she said. “All those baptism by fire moments, I don’t think we forget them easily. I don’t think we’re going to forget this quickly. I believe we have a new compassion for people who are living on the edge because so many of us were there together over the course of the past year and a half.”
Jacob Wanderscheid is the executive director of the Food Bank of Siouxland, which works with 100 member agencies in 11 counties in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. He said he is concerned some of the focus that was placed on food insecurity last year could fade now that things are returning to normal.
“Last year, if somebody was home sick or laid off because their business closed, that was easily explained, it’s easier to tell that story,” Wanderscheid said. “Now, it might get back to why does somebody still need assistance when the economy is improving? We have to keep talking about what food insecurity looks like. We need to sustain that message that it’s here.”
Pallets of food at the HACAP Food Reservoir in Hiawatha await distribution to Cedar Rapids following last summer’s derecho.
A volunteer loads a box of food into a vehicle during the Food Bank of Siouxland’s “Mobile Pantry Program: Food to You” distributions.
Tough times still ahead
While food bank and pantry operators may have seen a bit of a reprieve earlier this year, they are closely watching several developments in the coming weeks and months as they prepare for the fall and the upcoming holiday season, which is traditionally their busiest time of the year.
Besides the recent increases in COVID-19 cases brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant, some government programs are set to expire that could again force more people back to the shelves of their local food pantries.
One of those is federal unemployment benefits, which have been paid since March 2020. Those are set to expire Sept. 6, and CNBC reports that there appears to be little chance of Congress extending them, creating an unemployment cliff for 7.5 million people.
Another is the reduction in benefits paid to SNAP recipients.
Unger, the CEO of DMARC, said benefits were allowed to be paid out at the maximum tier during the pandemic, and there are concerns that could end if a state proclamation of a pandemic isn’t extended. There was also a 15% increase in benefits contained in CARES Act funding, and that is set to expire at the end of September.
Unger said the combination of those two things is a scary proposition.
“The thing about something like that ending, now it’s walking right into our busiest time of year,” he said. “We’ve seen it coming ... so we’ve been able to prepare for it, but at the same time we don’t have a great measuring stick of what this new population of people in need is. We know there’s still a lot of people who are unemployed or haven’t gone back to work, but what is this new universe going to look like for us?
“Fortunately, if demand spikes again, food banks and pantries already know what to do,” Unger said. “The good thing is we just went through it so we know everything we need to adapt and do if that happens.”
Book said she also worries about a spike this fall.
“We’re planning for a fall surge,” she said. “I’m disappointed in vaccination rates in the state of Iowa [46.9% as of Aug. 4]. We cover a significant part of rural Iowa where vaccination rates are low, and I’m fearful that when school starts in the fall, we’re going to see COVID jump again. I think we could be in for some more rocky COVID waves to come, so we’re preparing for that and we’re working with our school pantries to make sure they are prepared.”
Gorkow said the changing challenges keep the system working to be better.
“It’s continual learning,” she said. “The challenges that happened last year made us better, but a new one will always come our way, so we always sharpen our minds and tools to be better.”
Some aren’t expecting the level of food insecurity to drop off to pre-pandemic levels until 2023. Others, like Book, say the data they see suggests that it might not happen until 2026 or 2027.
Wanderschied, of the Food Bank of Siouxland, said he fears people may have been lulled into a false sense of security when COVID cases declined and vaccination rates increased this past spring, and he’s preparing for a resurgence in demand for services later this year.
“With how the vaccine has slowed and the delta variant has begun to go through people, it’s kind of creeping back in,” he said. “As we get through this summer and people return to school, we might see things go backwards a little bit. It’s something we are bracing for and trying to get ready for.”
Changing the conversation
The people we spoke with said simply putting food on people’s tables is no longer enough, and it’s now time to focus the discussion on the causes of food insecurity and find solutions to those issues.
“We need to be able to talk about that,” Book said. “We need to talk about why there are open jobs and a higher unemployment rate and why that is happening. I think food bankers need to be prepared to address income inequity and unemployment and open jobs.”
Part of the discussion needs to be on paying people a living wage, she said.
“If we’re not going to pay them a living wage, do we just need to pay them to live?” Book said.
Barriers to getting a job, such as transportation and child care, also need to be addressed, she said.
“We need to explore this whole system we’ve built — it’s just broken,” Book said. “The whole foundation of the system is broken. Until people are no longer in poverty, we will have to continue to feed them.”
Unger said until those conversations are held, food insecurity will continue to be a challenge.
“It’s going to take this groundswell of public support around why in a society like this do we have so many people that can’t meet their food needs and ask the questions about where are we with wages? What’s the problem with housing, and why is it so expensive? Why can someone work two jobs and still have to spend 80% of their income on their housing?” Unger said. “There’s a lot of questions that we’ve avoided that we have to address. And until we do, nothing is going to really change that much around food insecurity.”
He said it’s important that the community rally around the fight against poverty, just as it did last year in the fight against food insecurity.
“We can’t segregate these issues,” Unger said. “We need to get around the same table and harness that same storytelling power to start a war on poverty.
“There is a power in coming together as a sector and fighting these things from multiple approaches to both educate policymakers and those who have the power to change some of those things,” he said. “Through the data we have and the stories we’ve collected, [we can] create a better understanding of the root causes of these problems.”
Unger said that discussion needs to happen concurrently with the continued fight against food insecurity.
“It’s easy to get micro-targeted on the piece of the puzzle that you’re filling,” he said. “But we have to find a way in parallel to get to the root cause. It’s kind of the next step, but it has to be the same step. We have to keep meeting those needs, but you have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”