The Des Moines Area Religious Council’s food pantry network set a new record for the number of people served in March, and officials with the organization warn that need will only rise if a bill moving through the Legislature that would create additional administrative hurdles for food assistance recipients becomes law.

In March, DMARC food pantries served 19,410 individuals. Leaders of the organization said that trend is continuing into April with 1,515 people assisted on April 4, marking the second-highest single day ever in the network’s 47-year history. The record was set on Jan. 3 when 1,614 people were assisted.

“What we are seeing should shock people,” DMARC CEO Matt Unger said in a news release. “This is really the first time since the onset of the pandemic where we can compare apples to apples in the post-pandemic benefits era.”

Maximum benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program expired in March 2022, reducing monthly aid for some recipients from $250 a month to as little as $23 a month.

Since then, food pantries have seen numbers of visitors that are at or above pre-pandemic levels, DMARC officials said in the release.

“Food banks and pantries across the state are already being overwhelmed,” Unger said. “Now is absolutely the wrong time to make access to SNAP more difficult to Iowans seeking out help.”

Andrea Cook, program director at the Johnston Partnership Place food pantry, said what was a busy day in 2021 is now a slow day in 2023 for food pantries.

“People are needing to come more often to fill gaps on their shelves,” she said in the release. “People are struggling with rent, utilities, medical expenses, and we hear those stories every day. These stories have become more frustrating and more heartbreaking, listening is all we can do. … No one deserves to struggle like this.”

The Johnston pantry isn’t the only one struggling to meet demand, officials said.

The Catholic Charities Outreach Center saw 8,894 visitors in March, and the DMARC-ket Southside Food Pantry saw its two busiest days so far this month. In February, the Urbandale Food Pantry saw a 67.9% increase compared with the same time period in 2022, and March saw a 51.4% increase.

“We are welcoming more new families than ever before with an average of over 100 new families each month,” Patty Sneddon-Kistin, the Urbandale Food Pantry’s executive director, said in the release.

The increase in pantry traffic will only get worse if a bill passing through the Iowa Legislature becomes law, the leaders said.

SF 494 would require individuals and families to prove that their net worth in assets is less than $15,000, creating additional hurdles for them to receive assistance, and would remove an estimated 2,800 Iowans from SNAP and other public assistance programs, DMARC leaders said.

“If more people lose access to SNAP as a result of this bill, food pantries will see the effects of this bill downstream,” Unger said in the release. “We can point to what we saw in 2022 as proof. Pantries across the state will need additional support to offset this undue burden.”

Iowa Stops Hunger is a Business Publications Corp. initiative to bring awareness and action to food insecurity in Iowa. Read additional stories on Iowastopshunger.com.