Writer: Emmett McMenamy
The good news: The Urbandale Food Pantry is serving more people than ever. The bad news: More people need it. In 2019, before the pandemic, the pantry logged about 13,500 visits. Just five years later, in 2024, that number had jumped to about 24,300.
To meet the growing need, the pantry moved earlier this year to a building at 7901 Douglas Avenue. On April 1, the doors opened at a facility that’s more than twice the size of the old one.
Pantry leaders purchased the new building last year and launched a $3.5 million capital campaign to raise funds for the move. The team recognized the community’s pressing needs and began preparing for the move even before raising much money.
“You have to take a leap of faith, because what’s the alternative? Staying in a space that doesn’t fit the needs, where families are waiting outside?” said Patty Sneddon-Kisting, the pantry’s executive director. “There was never a question of not doing it.”
The new 8,000-square-foot space includes a waiting room, which the previous location lacked. Previously, visitors waited outside even in inclement weather. That didn’t “feel like giving food with dignity and compassion,” Sneddon-Kisting said.
At the new location, an extra 1,500 square feet were added to the back of the building, which connects directly to a new driveway. That means food can be delivered in the back, while visitors enter up front — a significant upgrade from the former site.
The new location also features a second floor for pantry partners like Project Iowa, which offers career-training services, and the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program that serves low-income women who are pregnant or are mothers of young children.
Sneddon-Kisting is the pantry’s only full-time employee. She works with five part-time staffers and 250 volunteers who pitch in to help. They’re “the backbone and the heartbeat behind what we do,” she said.
The expanded pantry now serves families from 74 different ZIP codes and continues to rely on volunteers, who are excited about the new facility and its features, Sneddon-Kisting said. The bigger space helps Urbandale Food Pantry step up to meet an ongoing challenge that often goes unseen.
“Food insecurity is in every community,” Sneddon-Kisting said. “It is somebody in your child’s class. It’s a senior you see at the grocery store. It’s somebody on your kid’s sports team. It’s everywhere, and you just may not know it.”
Iowa Stops Hunger is an ongoing Business Publications Corp. initiative to raise awareness about food insecurity and inspire action to combat it.
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