Urbandale, Johnston, Ankeny Among Pantries Cutting Back Food for Families

Metro area families who relied upon the Des Moines Area Religious Council's network of food pantries for food to get through the month will be getting a smaller amount of food beginning this week.

The pantries now will give each client three days worth of food rather than five days for each month.

Sarai Rice, executive director of the religious council, said the group had no choice but to cut back the monthly food allotment, which is based on the number of people in a household. 

The council was spending $10,000 to $30,000 more than its revenue monthly to provide enough food for all the people seeking food. Rice said the organization still has cash reserves, but was quickly spending them down.

"We don't want to keep doing that because we don't know how long this is going to last," she said.

"The number of families coming in just keeps increasing," she said.

The growth has been particularly rapid in Des Moines suburbs. Last year, DMARC pantries, which includes locations in Ankeny, Urbandale and Johnston, fed 9,216 separate families. This year the number is 12,650, said Rice.

At Urbandale's Food Pantry, which opened about three years ago, the number of people using the pantry grew 80 percent from last November, said Eileen Boggess, who runs the pantry.

Rice said many families participate in food drives through the church or special food and fundraisers around the holidays. "That's great and we really appreciate those efforts," she said. "But our families need to eat all year round and there are the same number in July as December."

"We need an increase in the number of donors if this city is going to able to sustain the number of families who can't feed themselves," she said.

Churches, individuals, corporations and businesses groups donate to the religious council's food pantry system by doing food drives and raising money.

Rice said while food drives are appreciated "money is really better than food. We can buy so much more food per dollar than any donors can with their retail dollar."

She said the pantry can provide food for one meal for about 75 cents.

She added that the religious council is seeking donors who are willing to make a monthly donation to support food pantries, much like people contribute to United Way, or public radio or other favorite causes.

Rice said $3 will pay for four meals; $15 will pay for 20 meals; $50 will provide the monthly allotment of 5 days of food for a family of four.

People wanting to donate can do so online at the Des Moines Area Religious Council's website or the pantry website.