Media Coverage

LORAIN — Freezer shelves sit empty, and may stay that way, at Lorain County’s only food bank.

Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio lost more than 148,000 pounds of food scheduled for delivery between May and August through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp.

The Commodity Credit Corp. was established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 and has served as a funding mechanism for agricultural programs since its inception. Its programs include subsidies and loans to farmers, and support for food banks.

Second Harvest serves Lorain, Erie, Huron and Crawford counties.

On Tuesday, the USDA officially canceled food slated for food banks across the country, including the 12 truckloads Second Harvest expected to unload into its warehouse this summer.

Food banks across Northeast Ohio are scrambling to figure out how to make up for cuts in federal support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, which serves Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula, Ashland and Richland counties, said the USDA, through its Commodity Credit Corporation, was canceling 553,000 pounds of food, valued at $1 million, set to be delivered between April and July. It includes milk, eggs, chicken, pork and turkey.

Appearing on Ideastream Public Media's the "Sound of Ideas," Greater Cleveland Food Bank President and CEO Kristin Warzocha said the cancellation comes on the heels of cuts to the Local Food Assistance Purchase program.

"We were notified a few weeks ago that that program would be coming to an end as of June 30th, that was another million pounds of food we had been planning on this year," Warzocha said.

Federal proposals to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would hurt already struggling Ohioans, crush food banks in the state, diminish the state economy and result in job losses as well, advocates and researchers say.

A budget resolution being considered by Congress would set funding targets for the next decade, and proposals have called for at least $880 billion in cuts from programs covered by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Agriculture Committee, including the nutrition program, SNAP.

“The principal entitlement programs under these committees are Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program … which indicates that these two programs are the principal targets for budget cutbacks,” researchers at The Commonwealth Fund said in a new report released Tuesday laying out the impacts of those cuts on state economies.

A separate analysis released in February by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities stated that, of the at least $230 billion in federal cuts proposed through 2034 from programs in the jurisdiction of the House Agriculture Committee, reductions are “expected to come largely or entirely from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to be used to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest business owners and households.”

NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks to Joree Novotny, Executive Director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks about the USDA's recent cuts to the food purchasing programs that support families in need.

“The number of seniors seeking help from our statewide hunger relief network went up 133 percent from 2014 to 2024, including 70 percent in the last five years. Older Ohioans represent one in five people served by Ohio’s foodbanks and their local hunger relief partners. Ohio’s foodbanks are serving as a safety net to federal safety net programs, and we can’t continue to sustain a response at this pace without robust help. By investing in an increased minimum monthly SNAP benefit for older Ohioans, the State of Ohio can provide help to low-income seniors living on fixed incomes that aren’t keeping up with the cost of housing, medication, and food. We applaud the bill sponsors, Representatives Troy and Williams, for the introduction of this legislation –the bipartisan support is another strong example of the State of Ohio’s longstanding commitment to preventing and addressing hunger,” stated Joree Novotny, executive director for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

The Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks without explanation, according to food bank leaders in six states.

USDA had previously allocated $500 million in deliveries to food banks for fiscal year 2025 through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Now, the food bank leaders say many of those orders have been canceled.

“I certainly look at our lines and look at our shelves and say we need some relief,” said Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which also reported canceled deliveries with no indication they would resume.