(Radio Iowa) – Food pantries around the state say there’s been a surge in demand as federal SNAP benefits are delayed. Craig Gordy is with the Oskaloosa Food Pantry, where they gave away almost five-thousand pounds of food over a two day period.  “Normally, we give about 300 or 400 pounds, so people are stocking up because they know SNAP is not coming,” Gordy said. Gordy says his food pantry is limited on how much food they can purchase from the Food Bank of Iowa and he appreciates the governor’s recent move to try to spur donations to the food bank.

“We do have several farmers in the area that have donated whole hogs. They process it and bring it here,” Gordy said. “We have others that grow garden goods that they grow extra.” Democrats is in the Iowa legislature say the State of Iowa should take immediate action to assist the nearly 270-thousand Iowans who did not receive monthly SNAP benefits on Saturday. Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City says she’s glad Governor Reynolds committed a million dollars in state funds to match donations to Iowa’s six food banks — but that’s not enough to replace the 42 MILLION dollars in federal funds tied up due to the government shutdown.

(Photo courtesy of Des Moines Area Religious Council food pantry)

“This program has not ever lapsed since the original version was put in place during the Great Depression,” Weiner said. Weiner says Governor Reynolds has the authority to access 107 MILLION dollars in interest earned from investing federal pandemic relief payments to the state. “I think we ought to use those at this point, simply as a stop gap, until such time as the funds that should be flowing from the federal government start to flow,” Weiner says. Two federal judges have ordered the Trump Administration to dip into contingency funds to make this month’s SNAP payments. The U-S Treasury Secretary said this weekend payments might be made on Wednesday, but officials have to figure out the process. Weiner says the once-a-month payments are critical. “There are a variety of different chunks of Iowans who are on SNAP. There are 100,000 kids who get fed by SNAP; 47% are households with someone with a disability,” she said.

Nearly a third of SNAP households in Iowa are headed by a person over the age of 65.