Meet someone who is food insecure.

That was just one of the messages emphasized during Thursday’s Iowa Stops Hunger panel discussion.

It was the third virtual panel discussion in the Iowa Stops Hunger initiative, launched last summer by Business Publications Corp. and its publications the Business Record, dsm Magazine and ia Magazine.

Thursday’s discussion, titled “Suddenly Hungry,” featured five panelists: Nalo Johnson, director of division of health promotion and chronic disease prevention for the Iowa Department of Public Health, Deann Cook, executive director of United Ways of Iowa, Mike Miller, president and CEO of River Bend Food Bank in Davenport, Rebecca Whitlow, food pantry network director for Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Clint Twedt-Ball, executive director of Matthew 25 in Cedar Rapids.

The discussion was moderated by BPC President Suzanna de Baca and Michael Crumb, a senior writer for the Business Record.

The hourlong discussion touched on several topics revolving around hunger, including how food banks and food pantries have had to be resilient and adapt to the increased need for food during the pandemic while coping with fewer volunteers and resources; challenges that lie ahead as the effects of the pandemic continue; and the stigma that is often associated with seeking help when a person is food insecure.

Part of overcoming that stigma is to eliminate the stereotype of who is food insecure, Miller said.

“Whatever your stereotype is of someone who is hungry, just please come and meet them, volunteer at a food bank or food pantry or any food distribution site, just meet people, pass out food and you’ll find they’re just regular people, just like you and me. It’ll change your life forever,” he said.

Whitlow said it might surprise people as to who they may see at a food  pantry.

“They’re your neighbors, they’re the families struggling because their kids are not receiving school lunches, their hours have been cut. Most were managing their lives perfectly fine, and all of a sudden they have to find a new way of making ends meet and feeding their families,” she said.

Twedt-Ball said everyone should make it a goal to meet someone who is hungry.

“Everybody should make it a personal goal … to have a real relationship with a kid or an adult that’s hungry because once you have that face that you connect with, that story you connect with, it changes your motivation and pushes you further than you would otherwise go,” he said.

The panelists also spoke about the importance of advocating for approval of policies that will help lessen food insecurity.

“Giving out food does not solve hunger, it solves hunger for a day,” Cook said. “We have to get involved at the policy level to say, ‘Why are so many people hungry?’ It’s because they don’t have opportunities. If they had opportunities to support themselves and go to the grocery store and buy and choose what they want, that would be their first choice, so how do we move toward that world?”