(Radio Iowa) – Meals from the Heartland passed the one million mark for meals distributed to Iowa food banks and pantries on June 1st, which beat the record total of 952-thousand meals for all of 2024. Marketing Manager Daniel Rieck says it’s good that they can produce that many meals, but sobering that they need to.

Rieck says higher food prices have driven the increased need. They get a big start on packaging meals in January and she says things tend to slow down in the summer.

The Hunger Fight is October 6th through the 11th and they have some four-thousand volunteers who help package two million meals.

A meal packaging event. (Meals from the Heartland photo)

Those meals go out internationally. The meals they make for Iowa are called the Taco Mac meal, with macaroni noodles, soy protein, taco seasoning and cheese inside the bag.

Rieck says the finished meal is similar to Hamburger Helper. The meals they send internationally are called hearty pack.

To learn more about the organization of find out how you can volunteer, go to mealsfromtheheartland.org.