59 results for author: Blake Willadsen

DMARC Named a Top 100 Nonprofit in North America Receiving a PepsiCo Foundation Community Impact Award

DMARC is proud to announce we have been granted one of PepsiCo Foundation’s 2024 Community Impact Awards. The PepsiCo Foundation is the philanthropic arm of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), one of the world's leading food and beverage companies.  The program is a part of the company’s efforts to support local communities by providing resources for valuable programming, such as the DMARC Food Pantry Network. DMARC is one of 100 public charities and organizations across the United States and Canada to receive a $7,500 Community Impact Award for their hard work and commitment to the communities they serve. Through strategic partnerships, such as the ...

submit your holiday card designs

Calling all kids! Use your artistic talents to create a holiday card and your submission may be selected as a winner. Five local artists will be featured on a holiday card that will be featured at this year's Des Moines Holiday Boutique. The lucky winners will see their card designs featured at the Holiday Boutique from Nov. 15-17 and will be available to take home with a donation to support DMARC. You can submit a card design online at weareiowa.com Card template Submit your design All proceeds will benefit DMARC and the DMARC Food Pantry Network. We stopped in Local 5 News We Are Iowa (WOI-DT) for the Iowa Live show to talk ...

Songs of Gratitude Interfaith Concert coming Nov. 3

6:30 pm on Sunday, November 3 at West Des Moines Christian Church (4501 Mills Civic Pkwy) We can't wait to see you on this night of celebration and song! This event will highlight the many diverse faith communities and traditions here in Des Moines and unite us around the shared common values we have in song and helping our neighbors. The evening will feature performances from faith community partners throughout the Des Moines metro area.This season of gratitude we reflect on the record level of need we are seeing at food pantries in the DSM metro and highlight some of the many people who are stepping up in our community to help us meet the need. ...

DMARC Releases disparities report

This report aims to highlight current disparities among food pantry visitors related to race and ethnicity, gender, and age. It is our hope that this report will inform the public and policymakers about these disparities, why they exist, and potential ways we can remedy them in our community, as it is critical to understand the ways in which previous inequitable policies influence, and often negatively impact, people’s current realities today. Read more Disparities in your neck of the woods

DMARC Statement on ordinance to further criminalize homelessness in Des Moines

Our community is hurting right now. In the past 12 months, The Des Moines Area Religious Council, or DMARC has assisted over 70,000 people in Greater Des Moines through its network of 14 food pantries. Here in the city of Des Moines, that number includes one in four residents. Every month, we continue to see no less than 2,000 people visit one of our food pantries for the first time ever. In July 2024, we assisted over 28k unique individuals – the highest monthly total in the nearly 50-history of the DMARC Food Pantry Network. There is currently no end in sight to this rising level of need. These figures are daunting, but they are not happening ...

6 things you might not know about SNAP

This August marks the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Food Stamps Act, which created the program we know today as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Changes to SNAP can have a downstream effect on food pantries and we wanted to share 6 things you might now know about our best tool for fighting hunger. 1. The official name of the program is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: While many people still refer to the program as ‘food stamps’, In 2008 the name of the program was officially changed to try and reduce some of the stigma created for those utilizing the program. Starting in the late 80’s, the program ...

Statement on Iowa’s Decision on Summer EBT in 2025

Today the state of Iowa submitted a waiver to the USDA intending to create a new summer feeding demonstration project in Iowa for Summer 2025. The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) has continued to advocate for additional solutions to address summer hunger as we see record need in our community and across the state. This program would be another tool to help address the needs of the tens of thousands of children and remove barriers for those struggling to meet their needs. We are excited to see the state of Iowa is seeking solutions to summer hunger, a problem we know is not going away, and we look forward to working together at this ...

Host an Iowa Vs. Iowa State “Competitive Drive”

Let's Tackle hunger together - the big game is Sept. 7 Things can get tense in the office around football season... turn that competitive energy into a rallying cry to give back. Host a food (and fund) drive around the Iowa and Iowa State Game (Sept. 7). A record 70k individuals got help from our network of food pantries in the last 12 months... that is more than the capacity of Kinnick Stadium at the University of Iowa. When you tally up all their visits, we supported nearly 325,000 full pantry services in the year. That is nearly as many people attended a football game last season at Iowa State University. As the need continues ...

DMARC Food Pantry Network sees busiest month of all time

The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) Food Pantry Network assisted 28,047 unique individuals during the month of July, becoming the highest monthly total in the nearly 50-year history of the network. This exceeds the previous all-time record set in November 2023 of 26,469 unique individuals and blows away the previous busiest July by 28%. As the trend continues, this record only caps an uneasy trend of growing food insecurity that stretches back more than two years. From June 2023-July 2024 , 1 in 4 Des Moines Residents utilized a DMARC Food Pantry and this rapid increase in growth is raising concerns about the feasibility that pantries ...

Prairie Meadows Donates $99,999 to DMARC

Prairie Meadows recently awarded the Des Moines Area Religious Council a Community Betterment grant totaling $99,999. The grant will help fund DMARC Food Pantry Network at a time when 1 in 4 Des Moines residents are utilizing the program for food assistance. Prairie Meadows is a nonprofit organization dedicated to lessening the burden of government by promoting economic development, jobs, agriculture, and tourism in the state of Iowa. “Addressing the record levels of food insecurity we are seeing will take a concerted effort across religious communities, the business, government, and nonprofit sector. Prairie Meadows understands the importance of ...