Hunger does exist in NE Iowa, speaker tells local DAR chapter

Northeast Iowa Food Bank's Karen Showalter with bags for food donations made by Hannah Lee Chapter of the DAR

Northeast Iowa Food Bank Program Director Karen Showalter has told members of the Hannah Lee Chapter of the DAR there is indeed hunger in our backyards in Northeast Iowa. 

Chapter members made food donations for Showalter to take to the Northeast Iowa Food Pantry for its BackPack Program.  The income based program is available to students who quality for free or reduced price school lunches.  It reaches 130 schools in 16 northeast Iowa counties.  The BackPack Program is assisted by site coordinators at each school.  A selection of foods goes home from school with students by backpack on Fridays.  About 4,500 children are served through roughly 16,000 backpacks per month.  The cost to operate this food bank program is approximately $400,000 per year.

Showalter told the group that BackPack is just one of the programs the food bank provides.  Other offerings include Mobile Food Pantry, Elderly Nutrition (for homebound) in cooperation with Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging, Kids Cafe, Summer programs and others.