2 nonprofit leaders share how food insecurity is affecting Iowa women and children
In the last week of October, 125 families visited the Urbandale Food Pantry for support for the first time.
Funding cuts and the recent federal government shutdown have led to record-breaking numbers of visitors, said pantry executive director Patty Sneddon-Kisting.
“We have our anytime room with food from our food recovery efforts, and that is something that individuals have access to on a daily basis,” Sneddon-Kisting said. “Since we moved here in April, we’ve been averaging probably 4,800 [to] 5,000 visits a month. Last month, there were over 6,500 visits in that room.”
The recent federal government shutdown, the longest shutdown in U.S. history at 43 days, interrupted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, funds for more than 270,000 Iowans, leading to unprecedented need for food support across the state.
The disruption disproportionately affected women and children. Sneddon-Kisting said that one in three families served by the Urbandale Food Pantry have children in the home. According to the Center for American Progress, 38% of single mothers received SNAP benefits in 2022.
“Families don’t have the option or the ability to say, ‘Oh, let me just wait and nobody eats until then.’ And the trickle down effect that has, especially on children, if they’re not eating at home and they’re going to school, how does that impact their school?” Sneddon-Kisting said.
The federal government voted on a funding measure to reopen the government on Nov. 12, but with the funding only good through Jan. 30, 2026, food service providers will remain vigilant in serving those in need.
Many federal employees, including members of the military, didn’t receive pay during the shutdown. Sneddon-Kisting said many people who never expected to use food support services came to the food pantry.
“Forty percent of Americans are one missed paycheck away from being in poverty, so we are watching that play out in real time right now,” she said.
Those in need are also planning for how they can care for each other. The Catherine McCauley Center, a nonprofit organization in Cedar Rapids that provides educational services and supportive services for women, provides two years of housing for eligible women who have experienced a barrier to success. They provide students and residents with a food pantry that has grown from a bookshelf with dry goods to a larger pantry with fridges and freezers.
Kristin Bratton, the center’s director of women’s services, said their residents were sharing resources during the shutdown.
“Almost all of our women utilize SNAP, and it’s been really interesting to hear them talk about how they’re struggling to get up on their feet, and they’re like, ‘How can I stretch my food for the other individuals who live here? How can I take less from the food pantry?’” Bratton said. “There’s one woman here who already makes one meal a week and shares it with everybody, and she was trying to think of how she can up it to two to three times a week.”
Bratton explained that food insecurity has been an issue both the organization and the residents had been contending with long before the government shutdown. The center struggled to keep the pantry stocked after COVID-19 relief funds went away. Since the closure of the closest grocery store earlier this year, the staff has also had to navigate transporting the women to the grocery store 2 to 3 miles away.
“How can we get them to work on self-esteem and self-worth, relationships and employment if they’re going to not be able to meet their basic needs?” Bratton said.
Bratton said helping their clients meet those basic needs remains top of mind for her staff, so much so that she worries about the employees’ well-being, too.
“Because of their giving nature, and because I also know what they’re paid, it worries me being their supervisor: How thin are they going to stretch themselves to meet the needs of our clients? They were stretching themselves thin already mentally and physically, and now maybe monetarily, too,” Bratton said.
The giving nature of nonprofit employees is a common anecdote in the industry, and with an estimated 75% of those employees being women, it reveals another place women are spending money out of their own pocket to support others.
Both the Catherine McCauley Center and the Urbandale Food Pantry have seen an increase of community giving in the face of such an increase in demand. Sneddon-Kisting described an outpouring of people dropping off groceries, purchasing goods off the nonprofit’s Amazon wish list or volunteering with their paid volunteer time off.
“The community always responds, and we’re meeting the need together in this moment,” Sneddon-Kisting said. “It takes everybody, because we food pantries don’t have the ability to replace what SNAP benefits provide. For every one meal we provide, SNAP provides nine.”
Sneddon-Kisting doesn’t expect the need to go away anytime soon. Urbandale Food Pantry is a border-free pantry, and they served families from 67 different zip codes in 2024. The senior population is the fastest growing demographic of people served by the pantry.
Additionally, food prices rose 23.6% from 2020 to 2024. The holiday season is already the pantry’s busiest time of the year, and the additional strain on families’ wallets will add to that need.
Sneddon-Kisting credits her staff for creating a space where families can come for help, free of judgment. She has 11 part-time staff and 250 volunteers dedicated to building a community where everyone is able to thrive.
“I believe food insecurity is in every community, no matter where you live,” Sneddon-Kisting said. “It is the senior you sit next to at church, it is the person you see at the grocery store, it is somebody in your child’s class or on their sports team. Every single person either knows or has a loved one that is currently utilizing a food pantry. How we choose to show up and how we choose to support says a lot.”
