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14% of Cerro Gordo County residents on “food assistance”

MASON CITY – According to figures from the state of Iowa, “food assistance” (formerly known as “food stamps”) has risen at an alarming rate over the past year in the North Iowa area.

In Cerro Gordo county, the most populous county in the area, 5,799 people took food assistance in 2010.  That number increased to 6,306 in 2011, well over a 10% jump in just one year.  That is over 14% of the county population per month on average participating in the program.

The trend of an overall rising number of people on food assistance even as populations decline somewhat rapidly in the area may be alarming to local leaders.

The state doled out nearly $9.3 million in 2011 to the program just for Cerro Gordo county.

I called the local Department of Human Services Office here in Mason City and asked how to sign up for the program, and they said to just “come on in the east doors at Mohawk Square, we are on the first floor, and fill out our paperwork.”

When I asked a few more questions, I was transfered to Deb Mandle, an “Income Maintenance Supervisor.”  I asked her about the volume of cases in general at her office and before I could ask anymore questions, she refused to answer and gave me a number for a person in Des Moines.

Here are the figures for food assistance for the last two years from the general area:


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