Although not the only food pantry in Webster City, the addition of this pantry has filled a need.

To Jamie Flugstad, Outreach Specialist at UDMO, Webster City, it was obvious. With an ADA-accessible building and central location, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church was an ideal place for a food pantry. That was in 2016, when she raised the idea with Kathy Finucan, a member of the church’s Social Justice Committee. Flugstad knew UDMO couldn’t keep up with the steadily-growing need for food assistance in Hamilton County. One solution was simply to make food available in other locations.

In the fall of 2000, St. Thomas opened its new parish center. Adjacent to the church, it had a foyer, kitchen, gym, restrooms, and, crucially, a gently-sloping ramp along its west side. The ramp made the entire building accessible to anyone, regardless of physical abilities, and on food pantry days, is used to get carts of food into the cars of pantry patrons.

Ty Harris, Regional Partnership Coordinator for Region 2, manages Food Bank of Iowa operations in 12 of those counties in North Central Iowa. He was on hand to mark the 10th anniversary of the St. Thomas Aquinas pantry.

After graduating from Grandview University in 2022, Harris spent a year as a member of AmeriCorps, a social service agency of the U.S. government founded in 1993. After that he began volunteering at the Food Bank of Iowa in Des Moines.

Harris was asked why demand for free food continues to grow in Iowa.

“The cost of living keeps rising, but wages and social security payments haven’t kept up. The result is more people who need help with food,” he said.

A single statistic brings that growth into focus: Food Bank of Iowa spends as much on food every month in 2026 as it did in all of 2019.

With a small full-time staff, the Food Bank of Iowa relies heavily on volunteers. In 2025, volunteers logged 44,000 hours, helping deliver 27,300,000 pounds of food; 8% more than 2024.

To get all that food to families who rely on it, the Food Bank of Iowa relies on local partners. Some, like St. Thomas Aquinas, are church pantries. There are also community pantries, school pantries, senior and youth program sites, and a “backpack program” supplying pre-packed food.

Last Tuesday, the St. Thomas gym was set up with tables around its perimeter. At one table, patrons got Welch’s grape juice and canned pears; at another bags of great northern and black beans and jars of hot salsa. Further along, a table gave out disposable diapers, toothpaste and bottles of laundry detergent. The delighted look of a young mother, with two small children trailing along behind her, at getting the diapers said it all: without the pantry, her family might have to do without.

The final tables held perishable foods: bags of oranges, cucumbers or bananas; butter, milk, prepared French toast, eggs, and frozen chicken; foods that are often the most costly in a family’s budget. By the time they left, many families took home food worth somewhere between $40 and $75.

That day it took 31 volunteers to run what amounts to a small, temporary supermarket in a school gym. Many were St. Thomas Aquinas parishioners; others volunteer because their children attend St. Thomas School, or they simply want to help.

Harris spoke for all of them, himself included when he summed it up. “If you’re in this, you have the heart for it.”