JAMESTOWN — More than 830 individual households from Stutsman County visited the Great Plains Food Bank’s mobile food pantry from July 2022 through June 2023, according to statistics provided by Great Plains Food Bank.

The mobile food pantry also saw 1,143 visits from county households during the same time period, meaning some families returned to get more food. The mobile food pantry comes to Jamestown quarterly.

“I would say that our mobile food pantry in Jamestown we see as one of our largest in the whole state,” said Zoe Absey, community initiatives manager for the Great Plains Food Bank. “We do see that there is a need and maybe there aren’t enough access points for individuals to receive continuous food.”

The Great Plains Food Bank recently held a community meeting to share its research information on hunger and to hear about the strengths, opportunities and barriers in Stutsman County. The community meeting included members of the North Dakota State University Extension Service in Stutsman County, Salvation Army, Community Action Region VI, Great Plains Housing Authority, Buffalo Bridges Human Service Zone, schools and churches, Absey said.

The statistics provided are from programs that the Great Plains Food Bank operates) in Stutsman County.

“What’s already happening related to food access and then what are the opportunities and how potentially the (Great Plains) Food Bank could help assist those opportunities to create better and more access in Stutsman County,” Absey said, referring to what was discussed. “As a whole, Stutsman County doesn’t have as many food access partners like other counties. So we’re really just wanting to dive into the community, hear from them and see where the needs are at and if there are needs. Maybe there aren’t as many needs as we are thinking.”

Stutsman County also saw an increase in the number of youth summer meals distributed from June to August. Almost 4,400 youth summer meals were distributed in 2022 compared to over 10,200 in 2023.

The Great Plains Food Bank has two school pantry partners that distributed over 3,800 pounds of food, and its three food pantry partners distributed over 187,700 pounds of food in Stutsman County.

“I think the number of towns, that’s quite a large number of towns but there’s only three food pantry partners and none of them are a community food pantry,” Absey said.

The Great Plains Food Bank’s Hunger on the Plains report shows a 7.1% food insecurity rate in Stutsman County. The report shows 20% of households in Stutsman County say it’s often true and 80% say it’s sometimes true that they couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals.

Food insecurity occurs when a household lacks regular access to enough food to live an active and healthy life, according to the report.

“Food insecurity is really about not knowing where your next meal is coming from, how you are going to pay for it and that uncertainty of just like how am I going to pay,” Absey said. “Am I going to have to make those tough choices of do I pay for my heating bill this month or do I pay for my food? That is what food insecurity is.”

David Klein, executive director of the Great Plains Housing Authority, said his organization sees a lot of financial insecurities within the low- and moderate-income households. He said for some positions, the hourly wages or yearly salaries aren’t keeping up with the expenses. For example, he said the costs have increased for food and vehicle repairs.

He also said households might need assistance with meals because parents work and need child care.

“Although you are working, your time is limited,” he said. “If you are not working or having to work limited hours to be able to meet the needs of your children being in school,that limits your ability to purchase.”

Great Plains Food Bank’s statistics also show that 30% of students enrolled in schools are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.

“Those kids are utilizing the free and reduced lunches, meaning that they might need more access, might need more resources,” Absey said. “ … Most likely there are a lot of kids that aren’t included in that number because of lack of awareness or education on their parents side or social workers not being able to get the word out or a language barrier so potentially that there are more kids that could utilize the free and reduced lunch rate.”

Absey said the number of volunteers in Jamestown who help end hunger is one strength in the community.

“Even just through our work in Jamestown, volunteers came up in that meeting but we see firsthand at our mobiles (mobile food pantry) how many volunteers come out to help or with Orphan Grain Train, how many people come out to help,” she said. “Jamestown … has a lot of folks who come out and help their community which is so wonderful to see and that is really who we need to help make this change or be the change agent to end hunger in our communities.”

Other strengths that attendees of the community meeting mentioned were the number of churches, service clubs and programs and services, access to health care and having committed leaders.

Absey said barriers include transportation and a lack of knowledge on what resources are available in the community. She said the resources need to be easily accessible for households that potentially need help.

Other barriers include needing more people involved in committees and organizations, people not having cooking knowledge, not enough staff, lack of coordination between agencies, challenging environment for child care, limited emergency housing, language barriers, paperwork for services and a lack of initiative by clients in need.

Absey said some opportunities include having more conversations about ending hunger in the community.

“Is it a coalition meeting that meets monthly to talk about hunger initiatives,” she said.

She said little free gardens could be started around Jamestown so there is access to fresh produce in the summer.

Other opportunities mentioned were promoting resources, connecting the Jamestown Middle School to the Great Plains Food Bank’s Backpack Program, creating centralized registration centers for resources and having physician clinics do nutrition insecurity screenings and referrals.