Media Coverage

Over the past two months, the Akron Beacon Journal has done some exceptional reporting on local food deserts, the high rates of food insecurity evident in the charitable food system over the past two years, and the state and federal funding cuts that threaten the safety net that the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank and its 600 charitable partners provide. Indeed, 2025 is going to be a defining year regarding the intersections of economic, agricultural and social assistance programs, and this reporting has provided excellent sightlines into the field of debate.

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.