Food bank and food pantry leaders gathered in Des Moines Oct. 23, 2025 to urge the end of the government shutdown before it causes a lapse in federal nutrition program funding. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
As federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is days away from running out, food banks, pantries and charitable groups across Iowa are bracing for what they anticipate will be “unprecedented” need.
SNAP serves around than 270,000 Iowans each month and is a federally supported program. But as politicians in Washington, D.C., squabble over budget decisions that determine when the government will reopen, food banks across the state have been asked to support hungry Iowans when current federal funding ends on Nov. 1…