Media Coverage

Local and state leaders gathered Feb. 13 at Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, 5510 Baumhart Road in Lorain, for its annual Legislative Service Day, an event designed to connect public policy with the realities of food insecurity across the region.

The event brought together lawmakers, health care leaders and community partners for a panel discussion centered on “Food is Medicine” initiatives.

After the discussion, officials moved into the warehouse to sort and pack food boxes for families across Crawford, Erie, Huron and Lorain counties.

Among the legislators in attendance were Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley and state Rep. Joe Miller.

Since the nutrition education program known as "SNAP-Ed" ended as part of federal budget cuts, food banks across Ohio are adjusting how they help people stretch food budgets and manage diet-related health needs.

Some are having hands-on cooking and nutrition classes, especially for older people on fixed incomes. At Second Harvest Food Bank of Champaign, Clark and Logan Counties, the staff has expanded their cooking classes to local senior centers, focusing on meals built around foods seniors receive through assistance programs.

Natasha Ridenour, outreach specialist for the food bank, said the classes grew out of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides monthly boxes of shelf-stable foods to eligible seniors.

"We wanted to be able to go in to our seniors and say, 'We can teach you how to make simple, easy, less costly meals.' And we based it off of our CSFP commodity box," she said.

A winter storm halted food deliveries across parts of Ohio this week, complicating efforts to reach seniors, children and families who rely on meal programs to get through the day.

As icy roads forced schools and food pantries to close, food assistance organizations scrambled to adapt and keep food moving.

The end of the reimbursement program has coincided with one of the worst years in recent memory for hunger. Federal cuts to the Emergency Food Assistance Program has meant fewer resources for food banks. At the same time, rising food prices has led to increased demand.

Grocery costs are up nearly 30% since 2020, according to reporting from NPR.

Now, Hope Lane-Gavin with the Ohio Association of Food Banks says food organizations across the state are seeing victims of SNAP theft in their already long lines.

“Every record that you can possibly think about food banks, we've been hitting it tenfold,” Lane-Gavin said.

While food banks are beginning to recover following the longest government shutdown in history, officials say they are still experiencing record numbers of clients due to rising costs.

Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Joree Novotny said food banks and pantries statewide have started to see a plateau in visits since the government shutdown ceased, with more visitors than previous years. “We're definitely seeing — as we have every month throughout the year — much higher-than-average numbers of folks coming to our food pantries for help with groceries,” she said in an interview.

“It’s thanks to Ohio’s hunters from across our great state that families will have the option to pick up venison at a local food pantry,” said ODNR Director Mary Mertz. “It’s truly amazing what we can accomplish when we come together with a common goal.”

For donation days, The Division of Wildlife partnered with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Ohio Penal Industries' meat processing facility at the Pickaway Correction Institution. ODNR said so far, 1,150 pounds of venison have been given to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks for distribution to West Ohio Foodbank, Mid-Ohio Food Collective and Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio.