North Iowa Reporter

In 2020, the Iowa Food Assistance Program decreased to $1,172,528 allocated in Hancock County, according to Hancock County Guide analysis of data from the Iowa Department of Human Services.

This equates to a 12.8 percent decrease in funds allocated over nine 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, $10,422,980 has been allocated for Hancock 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 2020:

County	$$ Allocated (2011)	$$ Allocated (2020)	Difference	Percent change
Osceola	$459,838	$712,538	$252,700	55%
Decatur	$2,335,800	$1,628,518	$707,282	-30.3%
Louisa	$2,225,346	$1,617,352	$607,994	-27.3%
Mahaska	$5,854,849	$4,284,960	$1,569,889	-26.8%
Howard	$1,423,077	$1,061,168	$361,909	-25.4%
Hamilton	$2,432,713	$1,831,001	$601,712	-24.7%
Mitchell	$869,244	$1,081,615	$212,371	24.4%
Story	$10,802,970	$8,244,624	$2,558,346	-23.7%
Taylor	$912,843	$1,122,817	$209,974	23%
Audubon	$686,699	$837,407	$150,708	21.9%
Lucas	$2,167,773	$1,699,873	$467,900	-21.6%
Grundy	$920,708	$1,117,515	$196,807	21.4%
Bremer	$1,723,736	$2,093,421	$369,685	21.4%
Fremont	$1,170,117	$1,417,492	$247,375	21.1%
Allamakee	$2,390,630	$1,888,156	$502,474	-21%
Boone	$4,154,500	$3,339,507	$814,993	-19.6%
Carroll	$2,451,868	$2,920,878	$469,010	19.1%
Clarke	$2,426,224	$1,977,587	$448,637	-18.5%
Ringgold	$732,189	$866,129	$133,940	18.3%
Linn	$40,199,689	$47,387,473	$7,187,784	17.9%
Johnson	$16,825,032	$19,665,591	$2,840,559	16.9%
Chickasaw	$1,436,986	$1,209,565	$227,421	-15.8%
Wayne	$1,237,051	$1,043,104	$193,947	-15.7%
Madison	$1,834,510	$1,553,987	$280,523	-15.3%
Black Hawk	$27,943,063	$32,170,846	$4,227,783	15.1%

Source: Iowa Department of Human Services