Because DMARC is committed to providing food to 14 partner pantry sites at no cost, they rely on support from generous contributors. Financial contributions are used to buy food at wholesale while donated food items are sorted, repackaged and then given to the pantry sites. You can make your donations to support DMARC through our church by clicking the button for online giving, or by mailing a check to Polk City UMC with "DMARC Food Pantry" in the memo line.

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UPDATES FROM OUR DMARC CONGREGATIONAL DELEGATE

The Des Moines Area Religious Council(DMARC) Food Pantry Warehouse saw increasing demand for food before this pandemic year of 2020.  In November of 2019, they served (22,632)the greatest ever in their 40 years of service. After the March 2020 pandemic restrictions hit, there was a great increase in those using their 14 pantries for the first time, especially the Mobile Pantries. There was a surge of foot traffic after Iowa was "shut down" with new users taking over. In March 2020-June2020, 4,687 used a pantry for the first time. DMARC saw  food costs skyrocket (up %20 to .50 cents to .60 cents per meal). The average cost per purchased food item increased by 63% after March 2020.

So to bring numbers to light after their ending Fiscal Year June 2019 to June 2020 compared to Fiscal year June 2018-June 2019,  there were 14,293 first time users/17,828 average monthly pantry visitors with the greatest age served of 0-17/214,055 total pantry visits/1,926,495 total meals provided!!!

Words can not express how I appreciate the monetary donations our congregation delivers no matter what the situation our lives are in. For the month of December, our congregation has donated the highest given monetary amount of $1,760. in my 25 years of being a delegate. THANK YOU!!!

The total for the year is $10,935 congregation and with the addition of the Youth Group food drive money of $670 = $11,605. So proud of all of you for helping even with a pandemic hanging over our heads!!!!! I wish to thank Terry and Jill Stockstrom for food delivery in February and Rhonda George and Charlotte Loter for getting the wonderful money numbers to me monthly. Thank you to those who supported the Douglas Woods Challenge in April and the Youth Group for their great food drive every year. Thank you to Charlotte Loter, Diane Lukasik for attending meetings and Teresa Miller for being there.

Lastly, thank all of you for not forgetting hunger never takes a vacation!

Moving on to 2021.......may it be calmer, safer and healthier for all of us!

If you wish to donate to DMARC, please visit our church website polkcityumc.org/give.

If you wish to write a check, please write it out to Polk City United Methodist Church with "DMARC Food Pantry" in the memo and mail to the address on the website above. Also, whenever you are buying from Amazon please check out Amazon Smiles and consider DMARC for donations.

Questions? Contact Linda Pennington, Polk City UMC DMARC Delegate