Iowa Stops Hunger panel discusses pandemic’s effect on food insecurity

By Michael Crumb

Getting the coronavirus pandemic under control and then working on policy solutions to help low-income Iowans were just some of the topics discussed during a recent panel discussion on food insecurity in Iowa as part of Business Publication Corp.’s Iowa Stops Hunger initiative.

BPC brought together experts from various sectors of the nonprofit, business and government community during a virtual discussion on July 30 to discuss the challenges facing the food insecure in Iowa, and what can be done to lift them up and support them.

The panel discussion, “Hunger: So close to home,” was the first of three in BPC’s Iowa Stops Hunger initiative. It featured Deann Cook, executive director of United Ways of Iowa; Mike Naig, Iowa secretary of agriculture; Linda Gorkow, executive director of the Iowa Food Bank Association; Chris Nelson, president and CEO of Kemin Industries; and Nalo Johnson division director of health promotion and chronic disease prevention at the Iowa Department of Public Health. The discussion was moderated by Suzanna de Baca, president and group publisher at BPC. It included a recorded message from Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, chair of the Feeding Iowans Task Force.

The panelists were asked questions about what it means to be food
insecure and who in Iowa does it affect. 

“More people than you think,” Cook said in an answer that was echoed by the other panelists. 

Referring to a methodology used by the United Way, about 37% of Iowa households are struggling financially and could be considered food insecure, she said.

“Thirty-seven percent is really not acceptable, and it’s important to know that about a third of those households that are struggling have kids in them, a third have seniors in them, so it’s across the spectrum of age of people who are struggling,” Cook said.

Gorkow said no area of Iowa is untouched by food insecurity.

“Food insecurity is found in every county across Iowa, from the west to the east and south to north,” she said. 

More than 340,000 people in Iowa experienced food insecurity before the coronavirus pandemic. That number has risen significantly in recent months.

Nelson said it’s important to understand that food insecurity can fall into two categories: calorically insecure, or those who don’t get enough food to eat; and nutritionally insecure, or not having enough healthy food to eat.

“I would maintain when we look at those two evidences, there are almost two separate groups of folks that fall into that insecurity, and probably need very different approaches to how we address the problem,” Nelson said.

He said the problem is mostly invisible in Iowa.

“We do not have what I would call extraordinarily seriously malnourished individuals, but we have people who are seriously food compromised, both nutritionally especially, and in some cases calorically,” Nelson said.

“More than 340,000 people in Iowa experienced food insecurity before the coronavirus pandemic. That number has risen significantly in recent months.”

- Linda Gorkow, executive director of the
Iowa Food Bank Association

Each panel member was also asked questions specific to their organization or area of expertise. Here’s a little of what they had to say:

On increasing Women, Infant and Children numbers

Nalo Johnson: “When we look at the data, we see food insecurity is not only experienced across the state, it is experienced disproportionately among various communities within our state,” she said, citing inequities in food insecurity between white people and people of color. There were also 61,500 participants in the Women, Infant and Children nutrition program in June, a 7% increase over June 2019 and the largest increase on record for the WIC program, she said. “We think this really speaks to the fact the COVID pandemic is definitely impacting the need by people for access to our nutritional services than ever before.”

Lifting the veil of shame

Linda Gorkow: “It’s not only places like California or New York, it’s in Iowa. It’s very humbling when you have people who need that food and to ask for food. We’re very prideful people in Iowa and it’s hard sometimes to ask for food. We want to take the veil off that shame. We don’t want people to think there is shame in that. It’s a situation when a person can have one bad month.”

Assistance programs not reaching everyone in need

Deann Cook: “We know there’s about 25% undercount [of those possibly food insecure but don’t qualify for assistance] in how many people are actually struggling, so who’s in that doughnut hole? What are they doing? They’re bringing in enough income to be above the federal poverty level, which disqualifies them from assistance they can receive, but they’re not able to make it on the top end to meet a survival budget in their household, so they’re scrambling every day, every week, every month to fit it all together.”

Effect of pandemic on agriculture

Mike Naig: “Every Iowan should care about what’s happening down that supply chain because what happens on the farm and what happens in the processing plant and what happens in the grocery story, everywhere through that supply chain, impacts every Iowan that eats.”

Food insecurity and the workforce?

Chris Nelson: “There’s no question food insecurity affects everyone, especially when food insecurity leads to food insufficiency. People arrive at work that didn’t have anything for breakfast, have very little for lunch and then continue on, this all leads to a much lower productivity and affects every business in Iowa. It’s a very serious problem for all of us … and starts to threaten where companies are going in this state.”

One Big Question

What is one of the biggest systemic barriers that leads to food insecurity? 

Chris Nelson: A key concept in understanding food insecurity is a shortage of calories, also known as insecure nutrition, especially for children. The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are critical to their development. Insecure nutrition leading to chronic malnutrition greatly threatens a child’s future.  

In the U.S., food insecurity and poverty are directly linked and collectively increase chronic health issues. Poverty is often responsible for malnourishment, but it also impedes education on understanding the caloric and nutritional needs of children. The United Nations considers obesity as a form of food insecurity due to malnutrition. With 1 in 6 families struggling to obtain nutritious food every day, children are less likely to thrive which deepens the cycle of poverty and hinders their future potential. 

Globally, the biggest food insecurity challenge is the lack of protein, the leading cause of stunting in children. An estimated 149 million children under the age of five are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. Of those children, more than 80 million of them are in India which creates a problematic future for their health and potential and impacts the country’s economy if future generations are mentally and physically underdeveloped. 

Deann Cook: Over one-third of Iowa’s households cannot meet a budget that covers their basic needs. The ALICE Report for Iowa survival budget consists of only the most essential categories: housing, transportation, food, health care and child care. Most of these expenses are fixed on a monthly basis. One of the only areas of spending flexibility for families living on the edge is food – they eat fewer meals, cheaper foods or go without to meet their other financial obligations.

Many people casually dismiss families who struggle to make ends meet as having poor budgeting skills. The reality is that they simply cannot earn enough to sustain a family even when working multiple jobs. The costs of all essential items in a family budget have grown significantly in the past 10 years while wages have stagnated. Iowans are cobbling together low-wage jobs with uncertain hours and no benefits to survive. The inability to secure stable work that allows workers to support their households leads to family instability. One of the leading indicators of this is food insecurity, as we saw by the massive, immediate need for food during the pandemic. 

Linda Gorkow: Food insecurity is found in every county across Iowa. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against hunger existed across Iowa. According to Feeding America research, in 2019, 10% of Iowans were identified as food insecure (meaning not having access to enough food to live an active, healthy lifestyle). 

 Factors such as a loss of a job, illness or an unexpected negative life event tipped working Iowa families as well as seniors into a state of food insecurity prior to the pandemic. Now, with the COVID pandemic affecting Iowans ability to earn a healthy income and schools out of session (where school-aged children receive breakfast and lunch), even more Iowans have pushed into a life seeking additional food for their families. Food banks and pantries are experiencing an increase in need with an additional 165,000 Iowans joining the 340,000 pre-COVID Iowa residents experiencing hunger. The pandemic has pushed Iowa’s food insecurity rate from 10% insecurity rate (pre-COVID) to a projected 14.9% food insecurity rate with approximately 470,000 total Iowans currently seeking additional food.   

Even before COVID-19, one “bad month” can be enough to plunge a household into food insecurity. Layoffs at work, unexpected car maintenance or an accident on the job can suddenly force a family to choose between buying food and paying bills. Working families across Iowa face countless situations that can result in food insecurity and hunger. Many working families, including thousands of households who don’t qualify for federal nutrition assistance, depend on the Feeding America network of food banks to help make ends meet during difficult times.  

 Factors outlined above trap many Iowans in a lonely and devastating cycle of hunger. The face of hunger in Iowa is changing. The elderly and working families experiencing difficult times are forced to make tough choices between rent and food to eat or fixing their car and purchasing groceries.  

 Imagine that you had just enough money to buy food for the week, with nothing left over to pay your utility bills or buy bus fare to get to work. Many families in need face these tough choices every day.   

Nalo Johnson: The compounding nature of poverty is a systemic barrier leading to food insecurity. People who struggle to comfortably meet their basic needs live under fragile circumstances. The pandemic is a good example of how circumstances may change that are outside of one’s control and people may find themselves in a situation of need that they didn’t have previously. Having social supports, including federal and state nutritional assistance programs and agencies such as food banks and food pantries, helps to relieve some of the food insecurity burden. However, these social supports are meant for transitory use and do not address the larger systemic issue of poverty in our communities. 

Food insecurity is one social determinant of health – an example of those social, economic and environmental barriers that impact health outcomes. Other social determinants include things like educational access, housing stability, transportation access, and access to quality and consistent health services. The interrelated nature of social determinants calls attention to the fact that if someone is experiencing a stressor in one area of their life, inevitably every area of their life is affected. Thus, one’s food security is not only predicated on consistent access to nutritious foods, but is also impacted by one’s social, economic and environmental situation.  

You can register to watch the free panel discussion on demand at https://bit.ly/33o5s84.