News & Updates

Recently released data, including the USDA Household Food Security report and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Income and Poverty and Supplemental Poverty Measure reports, show that temporary relief measures and efforts by the public and charitable sectors implemented in 2020 helped to insulate many Americans from greater hardship. With pandemic unemployment compensation ended, and other relief measures like SNAP Emergency Allotments, expanded SNAP eligibility for income-eligible college students and the temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit set to expire, Ohio anti-hunger and anti-poverty organizations are urging Congress to make critical permanent investments in the nation’s social safety net.

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced $80 million in federal awards to 60 grantees in 30 states to reinvest in critical Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Navigator services. The announcement includes $1,928,061 for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks and its consortium of regional and local organizations in its first year of a three-year cooperative agreement with CMS.

Joree Novotny, director of external affairs for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, said if there's been a silver lining in the pandemic, it's been many of the investments in family economic stability, like the expansion of the Child Tax Credit. According to census data, the first child tax credit payments released last month were linked to a 24% reduction in food insufficiency for households with kids. "I think that we've been able to see from the responses that Congress and the administration have taken," said Novotny, "what we can do long-term to gain back some traction that we've lost in equity and racial and social justice for average families in Ohio and across the country."

"For too long, our tax system has contributed to poverty, inequality and basic needs hardship by balancing budgets on the backs of working families. Before the pandemic, about 4 in 10 Americans weren’t prepared for even a $400 emergency. We cannot afford to return to the status quo. The recovery plan proposed by President Joe Biden and being weighed by members of Congress is an extraordinary opportunity to invest in an equitable economy."

As budget negotiations at the Ohio Statehouse continue, food security advocates are sounding the alarm over what they say is a threat to families that rely on SNAP benefits. The Ohio Association of Foodbanks says more than one and a half million Ohioans rely on SNAP benefits to help them get nutritious food every week, and new restrictions proposed in the Ohio budget could limit who gets food and how often.

A legislator's guide to addressing hunger

Independent economic impact analysis of investments in Ohio food programs, conducted by Dr. Howard Fleeter