(Atlantic) On Wednesday, Kristin Stokes, Community Development Specialist with Southwest Iowa Planning Council, presented a CDBG-CV Food Pantry Grant to the Atlantic City Council. The Atlantic Food Pantry now serves more than twice the number of people following the pandemic, tripling the number of expenses to operate the pantry.
The Southwest Iowa Planning Council requests the city serve as the applicant of a one-time $100,000 grant spent through 2023. The Food Pantry would be a sub-recipient of the grant funding.
TheAtlantic Food Pantry, serving the community for the past 40-years, consists of 30-volunteers. Stokes noted the demand for resources has gradually risen about 17-percent annually between 2015 and 2019.
For example, the Food Pantry served 645 households and spent $21,448.00 on groceries. In 2020, the pantry served 2,700 families and spent $69,677.00 on groceries. In 2021, from January through October, it has already helped 2,808 households and spent $80,253.00 on groceries.
Stokes says that 51-percent of the recipients of this grant must qualify for low to moderate income. Atlantic Food Pantry Volunteers, for four straight weeks, surveyed the food pantry recipients to on the respective income per household. Stokes says of the 100 households surveyed, all qualified for low to moderate-income. The grant also requires letters of support, and they received 39-letters of support in favor of applying for the assignment.
The food pantry would be the sub-recipient of the grant funding. If the Council approves this, then the food pantry would like to be on the agenda again for one of the December meetings to conduct a public hearing for the food pantry’s application.
