(Des Moines, IA) -- The Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantries served a record number of people last month. DMARC says they assisted 29,627 people in November, the highest monthly total in the nearly 50-year history of the food pantry network. DMARC says over 10-thousand of those were under 18. The non-profit says 65-percent of working-age adults that went thru pantry doors were working or disabled.
“We want to sound the alarm on the realities that so many in our community are facing,” said DMARC CEO Matt Unger. “There are 11,000 households in the metro that are struggling to meet their basic needs this holiday season. Something as simple as buying winter coats, a medical emergency, or replacing a flat tire, can lead to a crisis when you are a working parent living paycheck-to-paycheck.”
Unger says nearly 1 in 3 people utilizing DMARC’s network of food pantries are doing so for the first time.
