Food pantries across Northeast Ohio remain busy amid rollbacks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services started providing partial November payments to SNAP recipients this week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture stopped payments at the beginning of the month due to the federal government shutdown. To help fill the gaps on groceries, local officials and crisis management organizations directed people to food pantries.
The Hunger Network partners with dozens of food pantries across Greater Cleveland including MidTown Market, which typically served 40-60 households per day before the SNAP disruption, said Emma Messett, the Hunger Network’s hunger relief program director.
MidTown Market's record number of households served in a single day was 83. Last week, it served 110 in a single day, and this week served 96 in a single day. Most were first-time visitors to the market, Messett said.
“I currently am pregnant and so it's just been a little hard, and I'm grateful and thankful for the community having this,” said Leah Ross.
Tammy Tucker said she had enough groceries to hold her over for the last two weeks, but is worried about making up for the lost SNAP benefits moving forward.
“Very worried, because if we can't eat, we don't live,” Tucker said. “I believe if they stop the SNAP, it's going to be a whole lot of people stealing out of grocery stores and I think it's going to be an all-out war.”
Most Hunger Network pantries have a one-visit-per-month limit for a full grocery haul; however, Messett said people can visit another pantry in the network.
“We are encouraging people to maximize their resources now and check with their local pantries,” Messett said. “No shame in going to multiple during a time when they're trying to feed kids at home.”
Some pantries will allow a second visit in the month for fresh produce, while some are limited to helping families from certain zip codes.
The United Way of Lake County is hosting a pop-up food distribution from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the RISE Commercial District in Mentor to help with the increased demand of food pantry assistance.
“It mirrors what you're hearing in Cuyahoga County. So, when we brought the food pantries together just last week to talk about what was happening and how we could most be helpful, every pantry across the board was talking about an exponential growth in the phone calls and the visits,” said Dione DeMitro, United Way of Lake County’s president and CEO. “There's just way too many people in our community right now that are in that position.”
Last summer, Lifeline, the United Way of Lake County’s 2-1-1 crisis hotline provider, averaged 144 calls for food assistance per month. In two weeks — the last of October and the first of November — it received 192.
The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank said its network of food pantries saw a 30% increase in visitors last week compared to the first week of November last year, and a 40% increase in visitors this week compared to the second week of November last year.
