Food banks still recovering from shutdown

At the beginning of November, the Union County Health Department (UCHD) entered emergency status in response to growing food insecurity as the government shutdown saw cuts and delays in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Despite the reopening of the federal government on Nov. 12, UCHD continues to work with food banks across the county going into the holiday season to provide support as normalcy begins to return after the longest government shutdown in history.

“The health department moved into emergency operations to coordinate that effort and coordinate the communication across all food banks,” Health Commissioner Jason Orcena said.

On Nov. 3, UCHD met with the Union County Food Council and many of the local food pantries and distribution sites, where discussions centered around preparing for a potential wave of food insecurity going into the holiday season due to rising grocery costs and delays in program benefits.

“We met because the federal shutdown did not get resolved and…each day that went by in November, another family lost food benefits,” Orcena said, including SNAP and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits. “We knew by the end of the first week in November we were going to have folks that are going hungry because they will have no access to food.”

According to information from the Union County Department of Job and Family Services, there are 3,016 individuals in the county enrolled in SNAP, including 1,587 single families and 1,165 children and teens. On Nov. 12, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced that partial SNAP benefits for November were beginning to be issued after the federal government reopened, but the general expectation of UCHD at the time was that it would take a while before it was completely solved.

The REAP Food Pantry in Richwood, servicing people in the North Union School District, is one local food pantry that continues to see an overwhelming amount of people in need this month in the wake of the government shutdown.

“The last three weeks we have been slammed,” said Amber Boes with REAP.

On Friday, Nov. 21, Boes said that there were lines of people out the door waiting for food at 8:15 a.m., including some familiar and new faces. She said that the pantry usually has to restock once a week at the current rate of need but added that the pantry has seen a lot of donations to help.

“This is probably from the fallout of the government shutdown, because we’ve had quite a few people that we have never seen in here before,” Boes explained.

As part of its emergency efforts, the health department began coordinating with the food banks, assessing capacity to determine which of them have an area of need. Orcena explained that the issue they began to experience was with food banks that would need refilled immediately.

“They can be completely full today and then the next day they are completely empty,” Orcena said.

To be able to assist in restocking local food banks, UCHD established a centralized drop-off in partnership with the Union County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) by working alongside local businesses, organizations and service groups that wanted to host food drives. The central drop-off is intended for large donations of non-perishable food items, rather than personal donations.

“As entities wanted to collect large-scale food drives, we would have the capacity to set up and store all that and then redistribute out to food banks as needed,” Orcena said.

The efforts of UCHD and the food council seem to be paying off.

Honda Marysville recently cooperated with UCHD in a food drive that brought over 15,500 pieces of food items for their central drop-off that can be distributed to area food banks. As far as monetary donations go, Second Chances Thrift Store has launched a community challenge to match every dollar raised for food banks in the county up to $5,000.

Businesses, organizations and service groups looking to host a community food drive that are unsure what to do with collections are encouraged to call the Union County Health Department at (937) 642-2053. Individuals looking to donate non-perishable food items such as canned meats, shelf-stable milk and canned fruits and vegetables can drop off donations at the Avalon Theatre, 121 S. Main St., Marysville on Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone who is in need of food is asked to reach out to local food banks – a guide of all locations can be found at https://uchd.net.