Media Coverage

Families across the region continue to face a very real threat to their financial and food insecurities — inflation.

The rise in grocery prices, combined with pandemic-related benefits ending, is a major factor in why demand for Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank services reached an all-time high in 2023. More than 3 million visits were made to the network, and there was a 31% increase in people visiting food pantries alone.

It was revealed at its 33rd annual Harvest for Hunger campaign kickoff Friday at the John S. Knight Center that the organization distributed 34.9 million pounds of food last year.

That ongoing need is reflected in this year’s campaign goal, which is to provide the equivalent of 4.2 million meals for the communities served within the food bank’s eight-county service area.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- While pandemic-era enhancements to anti-poverty programs have largely expired, one temporary program expansion, set to be permanent, is now at risk of its first funding shortfall in generations. Due to ongoing food inflation and higher-than-expected enrollment, immediate additional investment by Congress in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is required to keep the program solvent. Without action, WIC is facing a $1 billion shortfall that will adversely impact our state’s most vulnerable families. The longer Congress delays fully funding WIC, the greater the risk that the program will have to absorb substantial cuts.

Congressional conflict is spelling uncertainty for 176,513 women, infants and children enrolled in an Ohio program that receives federal funds to help feed pregnant people and children.

Advocates trying their best to feed hungry families are worried about longstanding questions within the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program nationwide, with funding hanging on to continuing resolutions and increasing enrollment and costs causing program leaders to dip into future funding to keep the program going.

“Basically Congress was saying ‘don’t make any changes, don’t put people on waitlists, you guys keep spending,” said Hope Lane-Gavin, director of nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

But at some point, the continuing resolutions — those temporary stopgap measures that Congress puts in place to keep the federal government from shutting down until a longterm solution is created — must stop and the government will need to be fully funded.

As to what will happen to the WIC program, Lane-Gavin said if the program isn’t fully funded by March 1, or if another continuing resolution isn’t passed, states may have to institute a waitlist for benefits or reduce the level of benefits for recipients to maintain the number of participants.

Even if the funding comes at current levels, the USDA has said that will amount to a shortfall of $1 billion.

Foodbanks and pantries throughout the state are set to receive$250,000 from a settlement with Family Dollar, Attorney General DaveYost announced. The extra funding comes at a critical time, as food insecurity continues toincrease statewide, according to advocates, and as federal fundingremains stagnant due to ongoing delays with the Farm Bill. "From October through December 2023, we served more than 3.8million visitors across Ohio," said Joree Novotny, executive director ofthe Ohio Association of Foodbanks. "The same quarter a year beforewas 3.1 million, and that was up from 2.4 million in 2021, so we'reserving record numbers of people in need and every bit helps as westrive to keep up with demand."

Advocacy groups have been working to make sure Ohio families in need get the benefits they need, including extra benefits that were added to electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards during the height of efforts to bring financial aid amid COVID-19’s impact on the states.

“Ohio sought out and was approved to issue P-EBT benefits in summer 2023 for all school-aged children eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals, including children directly certified based on their household’s income, as well as children participating in schools using the Community Eligibility Provision based on area eligibility,” Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, told the OCJ.

The Community Eligibility Provision allows schools with a certain percentage of students eligible for free and reduced meals to provide meals to students without collecting applications for those in need. Instead, the districts are reimbursed based on need.

Ohio’s foodbanks joined with the state’s “hunger relief network” to educate the public about P-EBT funds, according to Novotny, as the foodbanks strained under the weight of increasing visitors to their pantries.

COLUMBUS – State Rep. Daniel Troy (D-Willowick) and Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) this week introduced legislation that would require the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services to provide a supplemental benefit allotment to qualifying senior citizen households participating in the federal SNAP program.