Food pantry demand rises for holidays

Editor:
I am writing to you all on behalf of the food insecure of Lee County and the Ft. Madison Food Pantry. As we enter the holiday season, we thought it might be a good time to update our community on the unprecedented
need we are seeing at the Ft. Madison Food Pantry. An average day for our Pantry in the past was 20 families. We are now routinely seeing 40 families per day. This increase may not seem too dramatic, however, when multiplied over the days and weeks, the increased cost to the Pantry is dramatic.
Some supporting data:
Per “Feeding America” and the Food Bank of Iowa in 2024:
•345,000 Iowans face food Insecurity
•4,300 of those that number reside in Lee County, Iowa (approx. 13% of our population;
High grocery prices (which we are all experiencing) contribute to the increased number of those facing food insecurity and those prices also impact the cost to the Food Pantry to purchase food to meet the need. We
purchase as much food as possible at a reduced cost from the Food Bank of Iowa, but as you can imagine, all Food Pantries are purchasing more food to meet their increased need which means there is less food available through that resource. What we cannot purchase from the Food Bank of Iowa, we must try to obtain via donations, food drives and retail purchasing.
We make a very modest request via this letter, if you find you have the ability to donate food, please consider dropping it off at our Pantry located at 3421 Ave L. If you prefer to make a monetary donation, please mail to
the Pantry - P.O. Box 273, Ft. Madison. If you are interested in hosting a food drive at your business, church, school, or organization give us a call.

Shelly Platt,
 Fort Madison