By Natalie Krebs (Radio Iowa)

The federal government says Iowa isn’t processing food assistance applications fast enough.

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack sent Governor Kim Reynolds and 43 other states letters urging them to improve the efficiency of their SNAP benefits programs. Luke Elzinga, with the Des Moines Area Religious Council or DMARC, says delays in getting SNAP benefits can be detrimental to those who need them.

“For a lot of people, that’s the difference between having funds to feed their families or not,” Elzinga says. “These are people who are waiting for benefits to pay for groceries.” The letter from U.S.D.A. says Iowa has an application processing timeliness rate of just under 83%. That’s far below the feds’ acceptable performance rate of 95%.

Elzinga says he’s concerned the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t have sufficient resources to process applications. Elzinga says, “Our HHS, those workers who are processing those applications, they have a lot of work on their hands, especially during the Medicaid unwinding.” A spokesperson for Iowa HHS says the department continues to review and make improvements to the process for reviewing SNAP applications.