Media Coverage

CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County is seeing a spike in electronic benefits theft, just as a lifeline for victims is about to expire.

Last week, Patricia Warren was shocked to realize that her EBT, or food-stamp, card had been drained. Her monthly payment of $153 arrived at midnight and disappeared while she was sleeping, leaving only a few dollars in her account.

“How can they do this?" she said on Monday while sitting in the living room of her house on Cleveland’s East Side.

The 65-year-old great-grandmother isn’t alone.

Cuyahoga County has received a record-high 1,199 reports of EBT theft this month – and it’s only mid-December. Such thefts, carried out by sophisticated criminal rings using card-skimming devices to steal data, are a growing problem across the country.

Ohio has processed more than 25,000 food-stamp theft reports since June of 2023. And the state has repaid upwards of $12.6 million in stolen benefits, using federal money to make families whole.

Ohioans have until Jan. 15 to sign up for health insurance coverage during the open enrollment period.

Programs like Get Covered Ohio are available to help people navigate their options on HealthCare.gov or apply for Medicaid.

Grace Wagner, director of health initiatives for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, said the program's navigators are certified by the federal government and licensed by the state of Ohio, and they are not trying to sell anyone anything.

"Navigators through Get Covered Ohio are here to provide free and unbiased assistance to anyone looking to find coverage and assess their options," Wagner explained.

Billions of dollars came to Ohio through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus in 2021. Now, three years later, the majority of the state’s coronavirus relief funds have been committed to a cause.

More than 87% of the state’s $5 billion has been assigned, with the biggest chunks going toward water and sewer projects, health and human services and unemployment support.

“The long term outcome of many of these investments will be seen years from now and may transform communities,” said Susan Jagers, director the Ohio Poverty Law Center, who helps run the Ohio ARPA Tracker.

The state has until the end of the year to commit all of its funding, then another two years to distribute the money. More than half of the money – totalling around $3.2 billion – has already gone to communities across the state.

Hochron said nearly two-thirds of the food they distribute is fresh food because they “know that’s what families start cutting back on when their budgets are tight.”

Hochron said MOFC is going to rely heavily on state and federal programs to keep their food stocked.

“We’re always going to be here to serve our neighbors,” he said. “But whether their shopping cart is mostly for or mostly empty really depends on forces outside of our control.”

Hochron said the Ohio Association of Food Banks will be asking the state for $50 million each year for the next two years just to keep up with the demand they see statewide.

“That is just what we need in order to keep up with the demand we’ve seen and make sure that Ohioans are not sitting down to empty tables,” Hochron said. “Nobody ever imagines being here until life happens. And it’s so important that we and our entire food bank network across Ohio are in a position to be there and help our neighbors when it comes.”

Their ask during next year’s biennial state budget will be twice as much as they asked for two years ago during that budget season.

The Second Harvest Food Bank distributes just about every item of food to make sure families have balanced meals.

Thanks to a state-wide program through the Ohio Association of Food Banks, they have been partnering with a local farm that is providing them with locally-grown protein.

For more than a year, the Schaefer Family Farms near Salem has been preparing their meat with one goal in mind: fighting hunger the area.

Members of the farm donate their time to deliver and supply the food bank with their ground beef. It is an effort that helps feed thousands of people in the Mahoning Valley.

After getting their cattle ready, the meat is processed and packaged at Rob's Horst Packing in Columbiana and delivered to Second Harvest Food Bank.

Every month the farm supplies the food bank with hundreds of pounds of ground beef for families who might not otherwise have access to fresh protein.

"One cow produces about four hundred pounds of burger, so we supply about 800 pounds per month," Evan Schaefer of Schaefer Family Farms told 21 News.

Protein is one of the most requested items at foodbanks. Schaefer said the partnership is rewarding for everyone involved.

Despite the large pot of money, not every organization’s requests were filled. Advocates requested more than $300 money to support affordable housing in the state, but just around $25 million went toward the issue. The Ohio Association of Foodbanks requested $183 million to aid its food assistance programs, but only received $40 million.