Media Coverage

A bipartisan effort to enhance security in Ohio’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly called food stamps — is underway in the Ohio House with broad support from interested parties.

House Bill 163, heading toward its sixth hearing, has a simple premise: replace the current model of Ohio’s electronic benefit transfer SNAP cards with a model equipped with the security chip that has become commonplace on credit and debit cards.

Bill sponsors — Rep. Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk, and Rep. Tristan Rader, D-Lakewood — say that doing so would help cut down on how much money is lost to fraud within the federally funded, state-administered SNAP program.

For four years, Kimberly Dudley has worked on the front line of the Affordable Care Act as a navigator, helping Ohioans solve the puzzle of buying private insurance on the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace.

But the job is harder now, the answers scarcer. In one of its first acts, the second Trump administration cut annual funding for navigators by 90%, from $100 million to $10 million, arguing the program was wasteful. Under the ACA, better known as Obamacare, navigators help educate and enroll people — especially those living in hard-to-reach communities. They were paid through a user fee on monthly premiums.

In January 2025, 50 navigators served Ohio’s 88 counties, toting their laptops to meet Ohioans at rural libraries and suburban food courts to help them search for a health care plan on the marketplace. But by the Nov. 1 start of open enrollment, the busiest time of year, only five navigators remained. Dudley, of Cincinnati, is one of them.

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.