More than a dozen leaders at food banks, food pantries and other anti-hunger organizations added their names and comments to a news release raising the alarm on rising food insecurity in Iowa.

Food banks and food pantries began experiencing a dramatic increase in demand in April 2022, according to the release, when pandemic-era emergency allotments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ended.

Currently, 266,000 Iowans are enrolled in SNAP, the lowest number in nearly 16 years. The eligibility requirements have also tightened in Iowa.

Last summer, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 494, requiring Iowa families receiving SNAP funds to undergo a new asset test before obtaining food assistance. The law does not allow Iowa households to receive SNAP benefits if they have more than $15,000 in liquid assets, excluding the value of a home, the household’s first car and up to $10,000 of the value of a second household car.

The law also requires regular eligibility checks for several public assistance programs, including SNAP.

“In the months since SNAP pandemic allotments were cut, food pantries in the Des Moines metro haven’t had a chance to catch their breath,” Matt Unger, CEO of the Des Moines Area Religious Council, said in the release. “Today, more than 1 in 3 people utilizing the DMARC Food Pantry Network had previously never done so. I guarantee this precipitous rise in need includes people you actually know. It’s children in your kid’s classroom, it’s your elderly neighbor across the street, it’s the person who made your coffee this morning, it might even be a close friend or family member. People are desperate for us to find solutions that strengthen the systems they’re relying on during an incredibly challenging time.”

The release comes a month after Common Good Iowa published its “9th Edition of the Cost of Living in Iowa,” which found that 1 in 6 full-time Iowa workers earns income that falls short of affording a basic-needs budget.

And in February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that from 2019 to 2023, the all-food Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 25.0% — a higher increase than the all-items CPI, which increased 19.2% over the same period.

“I just think everybody should be able to go to the grocery store and buy what they need to feed their family,” Michelle Book, CEO of the Food Bank of Iowa, said. “But that is just simply not the case, so we need to look at what’s contributing to their inability to buy food for their family. Wages are stagnant. Housing is expensive. Health care is almost impossible for people that are working those frontline retail jobs; many of them are part-time hours without benefits. And day care has become extraordinarily expensive.

“We need to start addressing the root cause of poverty. And when we address the root cause of poverty, hopefully, people will be able to have enough resources available to them that they can go to the grocery store and make healthy choices for their family.”

To meet basic needs, according to Common Good Iowa, a single parent with one child needs to earn at least $24.64 per hour; two working parents with two children each require $19.55 or more per hour; and a single working person must earn a minimum of $14.82 per hour.”

While wages have ticked up in the past two years — the median wage in Iowa increased from $19.19 in 2021 to $21.32 in 2022, a gain of 11% — a quarter of working Iowans still make less than $15.17 per hour.

“Iowa is facing a crisis situation as it relates to hunger and food insecurity,” Luke Elzinga, board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition, said in the release. “No matter where you look in the state of Iowa – urban, suburban and rural areas – the story is the same.”