Officials with Ohio’s foodbanks say they experienced long lines in the spring when the pandemic first hit but those lines subsided a bit through the summer as more financial assistance became available for families. But now, the lines are back.
Last week, 3000 families were served in the Lorain area. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank served 4,500 families last Thursday. Joree Novotny with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks says lines were shorter this summer, but now they’re back.
“Since that pandemic unemployment ran dry and since people continue to be either displaced, making those difficult choices or dealing with cutbacks at their jobs and lots to come, we have seen those lines come back up to where they were early in the pandemic," Novotny says.
Novotny says the organization supports a request to the federal government by Gov. Mike DeWine and all 16 of Ohio’s members of Congress to extend the Ohio National Guard’s mission to help distribute food beyond December.
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