Media Coverage

Thousands of pounds of food from Ohio grocery stores end up at the dump each day, but food banks are expanding efforts to obtain edible items before they reach landfills.

Chuck Allen, director of food strategy for Greater Cleveland Food Bank, said from dry goods to meat and dairy, organizations are collecting food from grocers that would otherwise be thrown away. Allen pointed out that partnerships with retailers help food banks fill gaps for items not typically donated, including frozen meat.

“We need to be there as often as possible so that we’re able to capture all the fresh dairy and the produce so we can get that back out,” Allen said. “The majority of that product is picked up by our agencies.”

According to state data, partnerships between food banks and local retailers resulted in more than 150 million pounds of edible food being rescued across Ohio counties in 2025. The Ohio Association of Food Banks recovered 137 million pounds of food in its 12 regional pantries.

Next week, Findlay City Schools will be kicking off the Hancock County Summer Lunch Program. The program brings multiple community organizations together to address hunger countywide.

Food insecurity is felt by nearly 14% of people in Hancock County, according to the Ohio Association of Food Banks, and with school out for the summer, the need can become even greater.

School is out in Findlay, which means no more homework, tests or early morning wake ups. But it also means students no longer can rely on the school cafeteria.

With summer break right around the corner, Ohio officials are encouraging families to explore programs made to address the summer nutrition gap and ensure children receive healthy food when school is not in session.

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.