DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – Dubuque Rescue Mission Kitchen Manager Amy McGovern says the organization is struggling to find enough food to feed people in need.
“It keeps me up at night. I’m always thinking are we going to have enough?’” ponders McGovern. “It’s a crisis.”
A recent Iowa Food Banks Association poll found two-thirds of Iowans say food insecurity is affecting their neighbors, and “35% ranked groceries and food as what they spend the most on each month.”
The mission spends around $825 to prepare roughly 275 meals for people in need daily and tries to keep about a month’s worth of food in stock to meet the demand. McGovern notes rising food prices and fewer donations have cut its inventory to about a week’s worth of food.
Kathy Hutton is the director of the St. Stephen’s branch of the River Bend Food Bank. She says her branch donates resources to nearly 70 organizations around Dubuque and Jackson counties. The food bank donated 1,500 pounds of food to the Dubuque Rescue Mission Tuesday—enough to last the mission another four days, according to McGovern.
Hutton wishes the food bank could share more food, but the St. Stephen’s branch is facing a 38% increase in demand yet a 26% decline in donations.
“It may not be exactly a large amount for everybody, but we try to get food out to every resource that we can, so nobody’s going to starve,” says Hutton.
McGovern says tough decisions are ahead if donations continue to fall.
“We would have to focus on people that are homeless. Probably half of our meals are people that aren’t homeless but are on low budgets,” says McGovern, meaning about 125 people who rely on the mission would need to find food elsewhere.
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