Media Coverage

Food assistance programs in the state would see large cuts and changes under the Ohio House’s budget plan. Meanwhile, a bipartisan pair of lawmakers are trying to prevent electronic benefit card fraud by equipping them with chip technology.

A federally funded program has been connecting food banks with fresh and local food in Ohio since 2022.

Ohio Community, Agriculture and Nutrition, or Ohio CAN, was expected to assist food banks and pantries through 2027, but those funds are getting cut at the end of June.

"The Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, or LFPA, which we call Ohio CAN here in Ohio; Community, Agriculture, and Nutrition, was funded initially through Build Back Better American Rescue Plan Act dollars. And later on by Commodity Credit Corporation dollars," said Joree Novotny, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

She said the Ohio CAN program provided millions of pounds of locally grown products to food banks and pantries across the state.

DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) -- Critical shipments of federally funded food have been cancelled, and now the impact is being felt here in the Miami Valley.

Food banks like Second Harvest Food in Springfield and The Foodbank Inc. in Dayton were asked what impact this will have and what they’re doing now to continue serving.

Second Harvest Food Bank in Springfield had a major federally funded food shipment cancelled in late March.

The organization is not alone.

The Foodbank Inc. in Dayton reported that 12 of their food orders were also cancelled.

"This is a total value of $349,000 worth of food and included items such as dried cranberries, eggs, pork chops, cheese, canned chicken, pulled pork, milk, chicken and turkey breasts," said Amber Wright, Marketing Lead for the Foodbank Inc., in a written statement. "There are no other anticipated cancelled loads between now and June 30."

The money was earmarked specifically for emergency food purchases, which form the bulk of food banks’ supply. Shipments bought with that funding have now been canceled.

“That is food that was previously showing as approved and had an expected date for arrival at a food bank. Then that status changed to ‘returned,’” said HAPCAP Development Director Eva Bloom.

The Trump administration clawed the money back out of concerns that such spending was unsustainable, CNN reported Saturday. It wasn’t clear at first what would happen to the food, but Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Joree Novotny said she has now received confirmation the shipments are not coming.

“These are dozens and dozens of truckloads, millions of pounds of food,” Novotny said.

Bloom said the Southeast Ohio Foodbank is losing 13 orders, or a total of 162,151 pounds of food.

“We’re seeing eggs, pork chops, cheese, chicken, milk, turkey breast,” Bloom said.

Novotny referred to these as “center of the plate” foods: high-protein, nutrient-dense. Food banks like to provide these ingredients to ensure families are getting what they need from meals.