The Des Moines Area Religious Council food pantry network served a record number of people, with an increasing number of people visiting the pantry for the first time, according to the agency’s report “Portrait of a Food Pantry Visitor: Data, Demographics and Disparities,” which was released Wednesday.

The report, which measures food pantry activity from January 2022 through August 2023, shows continued racial disparities in pantry visitors. The report shows that 18.8% of visitors to DMARC’s 14 food pantry network, plus several mobile sites, were Black.  According to U.S. Census data, 4.4% of Iowa’s population is Black.

The report, released during a lunch-and-learn event, shows that racial disparities exist across all communities in the metro, but are more pronounced in suburban communities.

For example, nearly 16% of food pantry visitors in Ankeny were Black, while only making up 1.7% of the population.  In West Des Moines, more than 23% of pantry visitors were Black, compared to 4.1% of that city’s population.

According to the report, the number of households served rose 24% to more than 24,600. There was also an increase in the number of children being helped by DMARC, with children making up 34.3% of those assisted.

“Despite historic levels of visitors seeking out a food pantry during this time, you will find the demographics and disparities that we’ve identified around food insecurity are not often drastically different from year to year, just more pronounced,” DMARC CEO Matt Unger said in the report. “While we have a long way to go, there are real and actionable steps we can be taking today as a community to address these disparities.”

The report also details the continued effects of discriminatory policies of the past, such as “redlining” in Des Moines neighborhoods, which segregated neighborhoods and prevented generations of Black families and other communities of color from building wealth through homeownership.

According to the report, the same neighborhoods that were redlined nearly 100 years ago are some of the areas of greatest need for food pantries. One example is the zip code of 50314, where 33% of residents used a DMARC food pantry in the past 12 months. That neighborhood is immediately north of Interstate 235 and just west of the Des Moines River, near downtown Des Moines.

Other key points contained in the report:

• 53.3% of pantry visitors were women.
• 40.6% received SNAP benefits at some point in 2023.
• 95.2% had income of less than 200% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that number is $60,000.

The report also contains data on veteran status, educational attainment and data for other metro communities.

According to the report, the typical food pantry visitor is a white woman who graduated high school, has one child, is living below the poverty line, does not receive SNAP benefits, is in and out of work, and visits a food pantry only once a year.

The report’s summary also shows that seniors are more likely to use a food pantry more frequently because they live on a fixed income.

Unger said DMARC is inviting other nonprofit organizations to review the data “to find where our work intersects.”

“This data shows the community what the situations those in need of food assistance are really facing,” he said. “With these insights we can also point to personal stories from many of those with and for whom we work.”