The hunger-relief charity Feeding America reports the nation's network of food banks today serve 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. That's 46 percent more than they served the last time the report was taken, in 2006.
Karen Ponza, a staffer at the Cleveland Food Bank, says in Northeast Ohio the numbers are nearly as staggering.
KAREN POZNA:
"In the Cleveland Food Bank region we are also seeing a 40% increase in the clients that we serve annually."
That translates to serving more than 223-thousand people in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula, Ashland, and Richland counties, and boosts the number of people in need to about 12% of all residents.
Just west of Cuyahoga County the numbers are significantly worse. In Lorain, Erie Huron and Crawford Counties - all served by the Second harvest Food Bank of Northern Ohio - 77 thousand, or 16 percent of all residents, are seeking food assistance - an increase of 134 percent since 2006.
The survey doesn't provide county-by-county statistics, but both Food Banks determine where increases are greatest by the goods being provided, of their combined total of more than 33 million pounds of food distributed last year.
Karen Pozna.
KAREN POZNA:
"We're really putting in the effort to research where the need is increasing. We work with First Call for Help where they have increases in calls, trying to make sure that those areas are covered."
Chief among recipients are 118,000 children whose families received food from area pantries.
Some less populated portions of the state actually fared worse statistically than Northeast Ohio, but the sheer numbers of recipients here is adding impetus to upcoming food drives, across the region.
