Iowa Food Bank cutback $500,000

The Iowa Food Bank Association has learned it will be without $500,000 after Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad used a line-item veto to strike half a million dollars that the Legislature included in Senate File 2336 in June.

Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) in Hiawatha has a food reservoir which supplies food to local HACAP chapters, such as the one in Washington County. HACAP relies on the Iowa Food Bank for some of its proteins such as tuna and other items that are not often donated. Amanda Peiper, director of the food reservoir, said her organization will have to think of other ways to find food.

?It will make us turn to other resources in the community,? she said. ?This is a serious issue because it?s reducing the resources we normally use to carry out our mission to feed the hungry. It will cause is to be more resourceful. We?ll stick together and hammer through this.?

Peiper said the demand for food at the reservoir has gone up.

?We would like to do more than what we?re doing now,? she said. ?We?ve started new partnerships with local businesses. We?ll have to wait and see how [the cut] trickles down. We?re definitely going through a learning period.?