More families, higher costs in food bank future

The Creston Area Food Bank is looking at higher costs as companion organizations, like the Food Bank of Iowa, cut costs to stay afloat.

Food bank treasurer Jodi Rushing shared statistics and information from the last year with the Union County Food Coalition Thursday, sharing grant money and donations were going quickly.

“We are getting less choices from the Food Bank of Iowa right now, because everyone is cutting their costs and there’s just not as many choices,” Rushing said. “We have had to purchase food through retail. We’ll get 300 pounds of hamburger and it will go in one weekend. That’s kind of expensive.”

In addition to finding affordable food options, Rushing said the food pantry is seeing more families arrive each week.

“It is just growing drastically, and each week, I think Sunday we had 12 new households that joined,” Rushing said. “We’ve had up to 20 new households join in a day. It is just continuing. This last year, we have served over 1,200 different households.”

From July 2024 through March 2025, the food bank has given out more than 215,840 pounds of food, spending approximately $20k. Rushing said the busiest times are usually during spring break or when families are preparing to send their kids back to school.

“If you have your kids home for a week, you need more food,” Rushing said. “Obviously in September, they’ve spent all their money getting school supplies, getting clothing, registration, whatever it is, so those times, we are the great supplement so they can spend their money on that and not on food.”

Rushing said with various state and federal programs on unsteady ground, many households who utilize the food pantry are nervous.

“Now that we keep hearing things getting cut, whether they’ve been cut or not, that alarms people,” Rushing said. “It’s kind of like when we hear that there’s going to be a tornado. You start to stock up and prepare for that, so we have families doing that.”

Community members interested in helping the food pantry can donate physical items or financially. Contact (515) 525-4428 for more donation information.