East Central Iowa News

In 2021, the Iowa Food Assistance Program decreased to $5,762,192 allocated in Mahaska County, according to Mahaska County Guide analysis of data from the Iowa Department of Human Services.

This equates to a 1.6 percent decrease in funds allocated over 10 years.

As part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's larger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, qualified Iowans receive financial assistance in the form of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards that can be used to buy groceries.

Since 2011, $49,064,332 has been allocated for Mahaska County as part of the Iowa Food Assistance Program.

The following table shows the 25 Iowa counties that saw the most change in money allocated through the program from 2011 to 2021:

County	$$ Allocated (2011)	$$ Allocated (2021)	Difference	Percent change
Osceola	$459,838	$953,922	$494,084	107.4%
Audubon	$686,699	$1,206,947	$520,248	75.8%
Mitchell	$869,244	$1,428,068	$558,824	64.3%
Taylor	$912,843	$1,495,834	$582,991	63.9%
Grundy	$920,708	$1,506,234	$585,526	63.6%
Bremer	$1,723,736	$2,788,782	$1,065,046	61.8%
Fremont	$1,170,117	$1,838,639	$668,522	57.1%
Sioux	$1,839,790	$2,857,184	$1,017,394	55.3%
Johnson	$16,825,032	$26,081,820	$9,256,788	55%
Keokuk	$1,787,723	$2,751,288	$963,565	53.9%
Black Hawk	$27,943,063	$42,294,510	$14,351,447	51.4%
Carroll	$2,451,868	$3,695,037	$1,243,169	50.7%
Cass	$2,460,413	$3,707,647	$1,247,234	50.7%
Fayette	$3,839,113	$5,765,635	$1,926,522	50.2%
Jones	$2,594,650	$3,887,152	$1,292,502	49.8%
Ringgold	$732,189	$1,092,850	$360,661	49.3%
Floyd	$2,897,789	$4,304,034	$1,406,245	48.5%
Shelby	$1,529,430	$2,266,209	$736,779	48.2%
Pocahontas	$1,068,084	$1,579,229	$511,145	47.9%
Polk	$100,940,232	$148,337,563	$47,397,331	47%
Linn	$40,199,689	$59,055,695	$18,856,006	46.9%
Monona	$1,506,684	$2,198,202	$691,518	45.9%
Ida	$941,994	$1,372,164	$430,170	45.7%
Kossuth	$1,612,228	$2,345,599	$733,371	45.5%
Palo Alto	$1,111,075	$1,607,866	$496,791	44.7%

Source: Iowa Department of Human Services