Food bank network relies on resilience to keep people fed

By Michael Crumb

Resilience.

We’ve all heard that word a lot over the past year as the rate of food insecurity across the country, and in Iowa, has risen.

 As people have been furloughed from jobs, laid off, or have seen their work hours reduced with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, more people have had to rely on food assistance programs to make ends meet.

 Resilience has been critical not only for those whose lives have been most affected by the pandemic, but for those on the front lines, who have worked to ensure that those most in need don’t go hungry.

 Those people who run our state’s food banks and food pantries say that it was the resilience of their staff and volunteers that kept the food assistance system up and running as the world around them shut down as numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose.

 “We know our job is to ensure that people have access to food,” said Barbara Prather, executive director of the Northeast Iowa Food Bank in Waterloo. “And so, what it really took is a team that was resilient in ensuring that that happens and do what they had to adapt to make that happen.”

 As we near the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the pandemic, we spoke with food bank directors across Iowa to learn more about the work they do, how that work has been affected by the pandemic, how they’ve adapted and how their resilience has been the heart of it all.

Iowa Stops Hunger
Last summer, Business Publications Corp. and its publications — including the Business Record, dsm Magazine and ia Magazine — launched a yearlong campaign, Iowa Stops Hunger, 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.

 We have worked to facilitate conversations about food insecurity through the words of those people on the front lines, fighting each day to help feed those who are most in need in our state. We continue to strive to tell the stories of those who, all too often, are forced to make tough decisions about feeding their family. And we hope that we will inspire you to get involved and seek answers that can lead to change.

 Understanding the system

It’s important to understand the different parts of the food assistance system and how they all fit together to put food on people’s tables.

 It really all starts with monetary gifts and donations of food from individuals, companies, growers, food processors, manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers. The network then transports those products, which are either purchased or donated, to where they are most needed.

 Food banks ensure safe storage of the products until they are distributed to local charities who get them directly in the hands of those who are needing help. Those locations are often local food pantries, but can include senior centers, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, youth programs and after-school programs.

 Jake Wanderscheid, executive director of Food Bank of Siouxland in Sioux City, described it like this: “A food bank traditionally is a warehouse that collects, stores and distributes food for other feeding programs. It’s kind of like a large Hy-Vee warehouse, and the pantries are like the Hy-Vee retail store where people can get access to the food. Typically you don’t buy from the warehouse, you buy it from the store.”

 Adapting to the pandemic

Since March 2020, food banks, which are members of the Feeding America program, had to quickly shift to accommodate not only the increasing demand for food, but also the safety and social distancing protocols being enacted to keep not only recipients safe, but also staff and volunteers.

 The result was a move away from what Wanderscheid described as a “farmers market-style” distribution where people come into a food pantry and pick out what they want, and toward volunteers putting together pre-made boxes filled with products and then distributing them through drive-up or drive-thru distribution sites. 

 Doing that required fewer volunteers and helped limit exposure between those who were working and the recipients, he said.

 Then there was increasing access to mobile food pantries, particularly in rural communities.

 Another change, Wanderscheid said, was a move from seeking more monetary donations than food donations. That tilt was needed in response to less food being available in stores where shelves were emptied by shoppers in the early weeks of the pandemic.

 Prather said a lot of change had to happen quickly to ensure food was available to help those who needed it most.

 “We did a lot of planning in a short amount of time,” she said. 

 The result is that food banks now have more processes and procedures in place to handle crises in the future.

 “For example, our on-site pantry, where we went curbside two days after the pandemic hit, we were making plans to reopen it in October, and we did reopen it again, but then when the [COVID-19] numbers increased again, we were like, ‘OK, this isn’t good,’ so we immediately went back to curbside again,” Prather said.

 ‘It’s not going to go away overnight’

The numbers of those considered food insecure remain stark.

 Almost 1 in 7 Iowans -- and 1 in 5 children -- have experienced food insecurity over the past year, according to data from Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks across the country. Nationally, that number has risen from 37 million people before the pandemic to about 54 million. 

 The food bank network in Iowa served about 50 million meals in 2020, up from 33 million in 2019. Many of those were first-time users, turning to pantries because they made too much to qualify for food assistance programs, Prather said.

 Another example of increased need is the calls to the Iowa Food Bank Association Hotline. More than 4,500 applications for food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were processed via the hotline from July to December 2019. Those numbers rose to about 6,500 during the same period in 2020. 

 Directors of food banks said the numbers of people who are considered food insecure were just beginning to return to levels last seen in 2008, at the start of the Great Recession, and then the pandemic hit, causing those numbers to escalate.

 Prather said it could take 2 1/2  years from last summer before things begin to turn around.

 “Food insecurity didn’t happen overnight and it’s not going to go away overnight, and I think our job is to continue to ensure that as people have tough times in their lives, food banks and food pantries are available to ensure people that they have a way to access food,” she said. “So it’s going to be here awhile.”

 Wanderscheid echoed those projections.

 “I can’t guess how long it will be until we see that decline in individuals, but the best projections I have is that it will be at least 2022 until we see the individuals seeking assistance decline,” he said.

 Linda Gorkow, executive director of the Iowa Food Bank Association, said food banks and pantries are planning for the long haul when it comes to recovery from the pandemic.

 “We anticipate for it to affect people in need not only after everyone gets vaccinated but further into the upcoming year and maybe longer,” she said. “The effects will be felt for a longer time than just when the pandemic is over.”

What’s next?

With uncertainty being the only certainty when it comes to the pandemic and food insecurity, food bank directors say there are some things that they need to continue working on to ensure Iowans don’t go hungry.

Gorkow said the food bank system was always built to be successful, so she’s not surprised at the resiliency that’s been seen over the past year.

“We’ve hit a lot of curveballs and we’ve learned and adjusted,” she said. “There isn’t a food bank that has closed down, and the pantries in communities are alive and doing well, and that is very reassuring.”

 Gorkow said no matter how well the food bank network plans, “we don’t know what’s ahead of us.”

 “So we always take what we need to do and where the gap is in our communities and need to prepare for that,” she said. “Where the gaps are and what we need to do to fill in those gaps is always changing. And I think being versatile and flexible is an important part of the work that we do.”

 Moving forward, the spotlight that has been cast on the issue of food insecurity needs to continue, Gorkow said.

 Part of that, she said, is better defining how the system works.

 “That awareness of how we’re all working together is important and that there are a lot of people doing some great work and how can we work together to do that even further to improve the lives of Iowans,” Gorkow said. 

 The conversation and acceptance of the topic also needs to continue, she said.

 “Make it OK to talk about, and ... making people understand that hunger is not OK and it does exist,” said Gorkow, whose family received food assistance when she was growing up. “Growing up, it’s something you didn’t talk about.”

 Wanderscheid said there is a concern that the focus that’s been placed on food insecurity could fade with time, and he likened it to research for different diseases that, while important, isn’t a part of people’s daily conversations.

 Medical research “is a long-term approach where you don’t find a solution overnight, where with food banks, we can get someone fed tonight with what we’re doing,” he said. “That is something that is on our minds that people might forget.”

 Prather said one big challenge is finding volunteers.

 “Part of that is making sure people can get vaccinated so people feel comfortable volunteering in work groups,” she said.

 It’s also important to maintain the level of support seen over the past year, she said, to ensure the proper infrastructure is in place and that there is enough staff to keep up with the current level of need.

 Prather said that despite the new awareness over the past year of “how close people are to living on the edge and needing help,” there is a chance that focus could dim with time.

 “Part of our job will be to continue to educate the community on food insecurity, what it does and its impact on people,” she said. “What the pandemic has done is, yes, it’s allowed us to bring food insecurity to a new level of awareness, and I think our job as food bank leaders is to continue to make sure the community understands that’s happening and there are ways you can volunteer or donate to make a difference in the lives of your neighbors.”

Maintaining their resilience will also be critical, Prather said.

 “We’re always looking and adapting,” she said. “We’re looking further ahead, and it gets easier to predict as you go ahead. But sometimes there is something that catches you that you might have to stop, reassess, turn around and do it a little bit differently. Our goal is to ensure that people have access to food … and whatever it takes to do that. Our staff is pretty resilient.”