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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.

This week, host Mike Kallmeyer looks at the drop in Thanksgiving meal prices and talks with a turkey farmer about how the meal’s centerpiece gets to your table. He also speaks with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks about what people can do to give back this year.

Area families have not bounced back from the end to pandemic-era benefits, and the high cost of food is driving more families to engage with local pantries — some for the first time in their lives.

Foodbank Inc. — which serves Montgomery, Greene and Preble Counties — served 374,983 households over the past year. More than 50,000 of these were entirely new clients.

“We saw a notable increase of new families, especially after pandemic-era support ended,” said Amber Wright, the foodbank’s marketing lead.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $1.7 billion nationwide to support farmers, offer nutrition assistance and boost rural economies.

That includes $1.2 billion for food banks, schools, child care centers and more to buy from local farmers and growers.

The Farm Bill is normally one of the main funders of programs that provide food assistance. But the federal bill has been tied up in political debates. Because of this, Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks, said farmers and organizations that provide food assistance have faced their own struggles.

"We've been in a state of sort of continued uncertainty with programs that either are permanently authorized through the federal Farm Bill or that have been launched in response to ongoing food supply chain challenges and other pandemic era impacts on people facing food insecurity, as well as the farmers and grocers and food banks that feed them," she said.

According to Novotny, this round of USDA funding has two components that will directly benefit food systems in Ohio.