The Iowa Stops Hunger Podcast shines a light on food insecurity — and the Iowans working to end it. Through candid conversations and inspiring stories, each episode explores the causes and scope of hunger across the state and highlights how businesses, nonprofits and individuals are creating solutions to ensure every Iowan has enough to eat.
E15 | Students Fighting Hunger | Iowa Stops Hunger
It’s not just the brain fog that comes with skipping breakfast; chronic hunger can take up a lot of mental energy when you’re constantly worrying about where your next meal might come from. And if you’re a student, that can have far-reaching impacts in and outside of class. On the Drake University campus, students are jumping in to help their peers. Business Record staff writer Lisa Rossi speaks with the director of Drake’s Community Engaged Learning office, Mallary Allen, and Drake’s Student Food Security Lead Kira Schall to learn how students are getting involved.
11 Sept 2026
E14 | Meals from the Heartland | Iowa Stops Hunger
Host Lisa Rossi chats with local leader Chuck Current about Meals from the Heartland. Current is the executive director of the faith-based nonprofit organization, which works to end childhood hunger in Des Moines and around the world. What started as a food packaging event has grown into a network of service that now includes an entire week of meal packaging during the Annual Hunger Fight. This year’s event will take place the week of Oct. 5.
4 Sept 2026
Special Episode | Sitting down with HyVee | Iowa Stops Hunger
In this special episode, dsm magazine editor and Iowa Stops Hunger Podcast host Michael Morain introduces Tina Potthoff, senior vice president of communications for Hy-Vee, to tell us more about how Hy-Vee fights hunger in communities across Iowa and why this partnership is important to their mission.
14 Aug 2026
E13 | A Hunger Round Table | Iowa Stops Hunger
In our previous episode of the Iowa Stops Hunger Podcast, DMARC CEO Kathy Underhill and Food Bank of Iowa CEO Tami Nielsen spoke about how increasing need and decreasing government support is creating a responsibility void that now falls on nonprofits, businesses, and faith communities to fill. Who should step in? What role do they each play in fighting local hunger? And what can actually be done? In this episode, our host Michael Morain speaks with a few leaders from each sector to help answer some of those questions.
10 Jul 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 12 - A Conversation with CEOs
dsm editor Michael Morain sits down with Food Bank of Iowa CEO Tami Nielsen and DMARC CEO Kathy Underhill for a conversation about how the two organizations are working together to fight hunger in the metro.
12 Jun 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 11 - Feeding People Through Faith
During this episode, dsm editor Michael Morain meets with Kathy Coady, chief development officer for Hope Ministries, to get a closer look at faith-based hunger support. They discuss the Hope Cafe and how free meals support those in need, no questions asked, and also how the nonprofit balances their faith-based mission within this secular issue.
8 May 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 10 - Global Neighbors pantry welcomes ‘neighbors from all over’
In this episode, Business Record reporter Lisa Rossi and Knock and Drop Iowa founder Zuli Garcia discuss the new multicultural pantry joining the DMARC Food Pantry Network in partnership with Polk County Global Neighbors. The pantry features culturally relevant food options on a rotating basis to help meet the unique needs of immigrant and refugee households in central Iowa.
10 Apr 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 9 - Congress in the Kitchen
Business Record reporter Lisa Rossi chats with Luke Elzinga, DMARC’s policy and advocacy manager, about how policy decisions and legislation can affect people experiencing hunger — directly or indirectly. They discuss the repercussions of H.R. 1, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” and Iowa’s new regulations on SNAP purchases and the revamped Summer EBT program.
13 Mar 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 8 - The Farm Crisis
Iowa State University distinguished professor and historian Pamela Riney-Kehrberg joins us once again to discuss the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. American farmers and agricultural communities nationwide — and especially in Iowa — were thrown into economic turmoil after several missteps coalesced into a farming bust. Policies and practices that helped the nation recover continue to shape the agricultural sector today.
Deb Fenton-Roe is a Wapello County Veterans Affairs Commissioner and co-coordinator of the Veterans Mobile Food Bank in Wapello, one of only two veteran-specific distributions in Iowa. As a United States veteran herself, she feels passionate about helping others who served to access benefits they need. She talks us through how she gets involved and how others can help veterans in their area.
9 Jan 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 6 - The History of SNAP
Iowa State University distinguished professor and historian Pamela Riney-Kehrberg talks through the history of food assistance in the United States. Over the years, different administrations have reshaped the original Food Stamps model into the SNAP system we know today.
There’s just nothing like Iowa ... shrimp. Midland Co. founder Jackson Kimle in Ames explains how he plans to turn Iowa’s new shrimp farms into a jumbo business.
9 Jan 2026
Iowa Stops Hunger: Episode 4 - Local Crops, Global Roots
Through a program called Global Greens, Lutheran Services of Iowa helps hundreds of immigrants and refugees produce and sell many of the kinds of fruits and vegetables they enjoyed in their homelands. In this episode, a truly global farming team explains how the program just keeps growing.
13 Nov 2025
Iowa Stops Hunger - Episode 2: Nutrition Coaches
Knowing about nutrition and putting it into practice are very different things. Katie Hassler and Corey Lewis, two health coaches with Broadlawns Primary Care Clinic in Des Moines, explain how they help clients make better choices, even if they have limited access to healthy food.
13 Nov 2025
E2 | Nutrition Coaches | Iowa Stops Hunger
Knowing about nutrition and putting it into practice are very different things. Katie Hassler and Corey Lewis, two health coaches with Broadlawns Primary Care Clinic in Des Moines, explain how they help clients make better choices, even if they have limited access to healthy food.
Iowa has some of the most fertile farmland in the world. Katie McVey with Central Iowa Shelter & Services explains how she makes the most of it — even in downtown Des Moines, where trainees cultivate crops and job skills at the same time.
13 Nov 2025
Iowa Stops Hunger - Episode 3: Spreading the Wealth
Iowa prides itself on feeding the world, but here at home, the benefits of that legacy aren’t shared equally. Shaffer Ridgeway from Southern Goods in Waterloo and Jonathan Lawrence from the Iowa Farmers Union and Eat Greater Des Moines explain how their programs are lowering barriers for farmers of color.
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