The spokesman for the Food Bank of Iowa says food donations regularly decrease significantly this time of year. Danny Akright says while donations start to drop off — the number of people who need assistance has not dropped a lot since the Great Recession that started in 2008. “You would think that there would be a lot fewer people who are food insecure. But really at the peak it was about 14 percent in Iowa — 14 percent of Iowans were food insecure — but it’s only down to 12 percent.”

The organization covers 55 counties in central and southeast Iowa. He says there’s always a seasonal drop in food that’s available as the various garden programs and farms head into winter.  “Of course when the growing season ends that flow of produce kind of slows to a trickle,” Akright says. He says the Food Bank of Iowa has seen an increase in financial donations — which he says are important to keeping the pantry stocked.”We’re able to use those to buy the products that people don’t generally donate and that we’re not getting during certain times of the year,” according to Akright.

The Food Bank of Iowa brought in more than two-point-eight million dollars in donor support last fiscal year. The previous year fiscal year, that number was two-point-two million dollars. Akright says Money raised in November and December each year equals between 30 to 40 percent of their yearly total.

(Radio Iowa, w/thanks to Clay Masters, Iowa Public Radio