Results from Feeding America’s annual Map the Meal Gap survey show that every one of Iowa’s 99 counties had an increase in food insecurity in 2023.
The survey released earlier this month shows that 12%, or one in eight Iowans, are food insecure. In Franklin County, the food insecurity rate is slightly higher than the state average at 12.9%. Diane Wills, the site coordinator of the West Fork Food Pantry, tells RadioOnTheGo News the amount of families served has increased over the past two years.
“From 2023 through today, we’ve actually seen almost a 76% increase in the number of families that we served and almost a 68% increase in the number of people in those families. And, 2023 would have been the time it’s still part of the pandemic, what we would have considered pandemic reaction. So we have seen a large increase and we continue to see that increase. And what’s most surprising is I think that we see so many new families, you know, it’s not just the same families over and over again from week to week. You know, it’s not unusual for us to have five, six, even 10 or 12 new families every week coming in looking for assistance.”
Kim Wills, the chair of the board of the food pantry, says they serve a lot of families in Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties.
“(It’s) about 312 square miles, so it’s a large area. And we see people from all over that area that come in there. One of the things about the food that we get too is that we are wonderful partners with Hawkeye Harvest in Mason City. And they do a lot of food rescue because they’re close to the interstate because they have businesses like Walmart up there and actually Kraft Food is another big one. And so they get so much food sometimes they can’t handle it. So we’re one of their first calls. So we’re able to get that food and that doesn’t really cost us anything. But if it wasn’t for the number of people who donate money, food, their time, we couldn’t do what we do.”
Kim Wills says some families are one misstep from needing a food pantry.
“When we think about people that are food insecure, think one of the things that we really need to bring up is that the way the inflation has hit, that people are just one unexpected expense away from needing a food pantry. It could be a car repair, it could be a medical bill, could be somebody loses their job unexpectedly, and people don’t have the reserves. And your donations help us so much, or donate to the pantries, the other pantries in our area, they do great work as well.”
Since 2011, Feeding America has released the Map the Meal Gap study, providing estimates of local food insecurity and food costs to better understand people facing hunger.
Pictured: West Fork Food Pantry of Sheffield, one of many area food pantries seeing an increase in individuals served at their location
