Upper Des Moines Opportunity Inc. is seeing a steady increase each year of people needing assistance in Webster County, according to the agency’s executive director.

UDMO Executive Director Julie Edwards gave an update on Tuesday of how UDMO served Webster County residents over the last year and requested $23,750 in financial support from the county. County funding goes directly to Client Services to assist individuals in need specifically in Webster County, Edwards said.

In Fiscal Year 2023, UDMO served 5,376 households, including 11,514 individuals, in Webster County, and provided $1,586,488.30 in services.

UDMO’s services range from emergency services and utility assistance programs, to housing assistance, food programs, senior programs and weatherization. The agency also has special projects like Back to School events and Bikes for Tykes.

The agency’s biggest costs in Webster County are the emergency/utility assistance programs. In FY23, UDMO provided $1,147,115.10 in those services in Webster County. That is an increase of more than $200,000 for the same services in Fiscal Year 2021.

“You can see the dollars that we’re putting into your county are going up,” Edwards said. “You can see the individuals we are serving is going up steadily.”

UDMO served roughly 1,400 more individuals in FY23 than in FY21.

Edwards also gave the numbers for Fiscal Year 2023, but noted that the data was skewed because UDMO was able to use funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. She said the FY21 data is more indicative of a “normal” year.

UDMO also operates a food pantry in the community. In FY23, there was nearly $168,000 worth of donated food or monetary donations that went to support the food pantry.

Edwards also noted that UDMO is looking for monetary donations to go toward general operations expenses for the agency’s offices. Because of lower funding levels for these expenses, UDMO offices in smaller counties have had to reduce hours and staffing, something Edwards noted could happen to the Fort Dodge office as well.

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Niki Conrad said the board would take UDMO’s funding request under consideration as the board works through the county budget process.