How you can help alleviate food insecurity
November 13, 2024
There are three ways people can help with food insecurity: Donate funds, donate food, and volunteer.
Food suppliers and pantries say the best way to help is to donate funds.
With monetary donations, savvy buyers can purchase more food. For the cost of one jar of peanut butter at the grocery store, Becky Whitlow, a skilled purchaser at Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) could get five or six jars. Of funds donated to the Food Bank of Iowa, 96 cents per dollar goes to purchasing and delivering food.
Food drives offer opportunities to people to pitch in and also teach youth how to help others in the community.
Parishes are pitching in. St. Pius X Parish in Urbandale is collecting funds for turkeys. St. Michael Parish in Harlan noted in its bulletin it recently collected 78 pounds of food and $270 for the local food pantry. And, the Catholic Daughters of the Americas was collecting non-perishable food items and toiletries for the Pottawattamie County Veterans Services Pantry.
Pantries also need volunteers.
At the Catholic Charities Food Pantry in Des Moines, 110 volunteers worked 960 hours in October to pick up food from businesses, package it, and distribute it, said Tom Leto, the pantry manager.
The holiday spirit between Thanksgiving and Christmas benefits the needy in communities across the Diocese as individuals and organizations support their local food pantries and other charitable efforts.
“We appreciate the outpouring of support from our community,” said Stephanie Sullivan, of the Food Bank for the Heartland, which provides food for pantries in Nebraska and southwest Iowa.
“We are continually inspired by the outpouring of support from our community, from individuals, foundations, corporations, our retail partners, farmers and processors,” said Sullivan. “We have seen time and time again that when we are experiencing a crisis in our community that everyone works together to help each other.”
Photo supplied by the Food Bank of Iowa.