Media Coverage

Looming federal budget deadlines are just a few weeks away, and food banks in Ohio say the risk of reduced funding for nutrition, health care and other assistance programs, could trigger increased demand in 2024.

According to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, within the past year, eight in 10 clients relied on local pantries for help with groceries because of higher food costs.

Director of Nutrition Policy and Programs with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks Hope Lane-Gavin pointed out that WIC equips new moms and babies with essential items that food banks typically don't carry, including formula.

"That is a huge hole of the food banks," said Lane-Gavin. "We just don't have the infrastructure to support the needs of infants."

The proposals in both the U.S. House and Senate appropriations bills would result in WIC turning away 600,000 eligible new parents and young children, and would slash benefits for nearly five million people nationwide.

Lane-Gavin said WIC is a key prevention strategy for avoiding poor health outcomes among new moms and babies - including pre-term birth, low birth-weight and postpartum distress.

As Ohio food banks see record-breaking amounts of need, the state is also at risk of losing federal funding that could help residents get essential needs and boosts in employment.

After the most recent state budget passed with a plan to redesign the education and training piece of the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), food and employment advocates across the state watched as the program became a “compliance machine,” rather than a way to bring Ohioans out of poverty.

An increasing number of Ohioans are struggling to pay for food amid inflation and the end of some pandemic-era benefits.

Hunger and food hardships skyrocketed in 2022 - and in 2023 has been far worse.

Our statewide hunger relief network – made up of 12 regional foodbanks providing help with food and other services in partnership with 3,300 local hunger relief organizations and programs in all 88 counties in Ohio – provided take-home groceries at our pantries and mobile food distributions 3.8 million times from April to June of this year.

Money from a settlement between Dollar General and the Ohio attorney general will go to foodbanks throughout the state.

The state sued Dollar General in November 2022 after county auditors found the company overcharged customers at stores throughout Ohio. Attorney General Dave Yost announced Thursday that as part of the settlement, Dollar General agreed to pay the state $750,000 so the state could give the money to food banks. The money will be used to purchase food and personal care items.