(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council, Monday, following a public hearing, approved the Food Pantry’s application for the CDBG COVID-19 Program. Their action followed a report presented Nov. 17^th by Kristine Stokes, SWIPCO (Southwest Iowa Planning Council) Community Development Specialist, who was present for Monday evening’s meeting, as well.

The Atlantic Food Pantry is requesting $100,000 in grant funding from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA). The grant will help the food pantry buy food in 2022 and early 2023. They previously received $23,000 as a grant match, from the recent Atlantic Chamber of Commerce’ “Scrooge” Contest, which in addition to cash, provided much needed non-perishable goods for the pantry.

Mayor Dave Jones said the Atlantic Pantry is staffed by hard workers and volunteers.

In her presentation, Monday, Stokes made it clear, the request for funding is not for a new building, as some may have thought. It’s a request for food and non-food items.

Stokes said also, the Atlantic Food Pantry has served as much as three-times the number of households since before the pandemic began, and their costs to purchase groceries has nearly quadrupled since 2019. The Southwest Iowa Planning Council requested that the city be the applicant for a one-time $100,000 grant in 2023. She says $95,000 will be for the Pantry to purchase food and non-food items (Such as hand soap and toilet paper), $5,000 will be used for grant administration, to be performed by SWIPCO. The Food Pantry would be a sub-recipient of the grant funding.

Stokes said Food Pantry volunteers conducted personal income surveys for each household they serve, over a period of four-weeks earlier this Fall.

In addition, she said based on the food pantry’s sign-in sheets, an average of 86-percent of the recipients live in Atlantic. The Atlantic Food Pantry has served the community for the past 40-years. Their staff consists of 30-volunteers. Stokes said there is no deadline to submit the application, but she hopes to do so in mid-January. She said they should know if the request is approved, by late February.