Fighting hunger in Adams, Brown and Highland counties

More than 40 people gathered for a Local Hunger Summit on Friday, October 7th at the South Campus of Southern State Community College. Elected officials and staff members from local, state and federal governments, who were in the audience, heard from a panel of service providers and residents from Adams, Brown and Highland Counties.

Pastor Don Young from Christians Across America spoke of the need for food assistance, telling a story of an elderly couple sharing a can of dog food because they were out of food and out of money.

“There are so many families that are just one or two weeks away from being out of food,” said Chuck Aurigema from Area 937 Ministries, echoing how hunger can be hidden but still exist in local communities. “Government, community and business must come together to meet the need”

One example of how the community has responded is Hope Christian Alliance, an alliance of all of the food pantries and soup kitchens in Highland County.

“We are just trying to hold on until we get some jobs down here,” said Curtis Pegram, a founding member of the Alliance. Pegram described how the community is doing everything it can, including planting acres of land with produce to distribute to hungry families.

But it is not enough, he said.

“The food pantry is not meant to be the only source of food” for hungry families, said Pat Mawhinney, Rural Agency Representative for Freestore Foodbank. Mawhinney described increased demand and need in the area, and raised concerns about threats to federal nutrition programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formally known as Food Stamps.

Other residents shared stories of struggle in the area.

Dee Wright works for Bright Local Schools. The school is seeing more children misbehaving because of economic issues hitting home, including more children stealing food from the lunch line for hungry siblings at home. While the school tries to have programs for needy families, demand often is larger than supply.

“How do we choose which children get help?” asked Wright.

Kathy Grooms operates a Head Start program in Adams County, where she witnesses children eating on Friday afternoon. “They stuff their tummies, knowing that there will be no food” for the weekend, she said.

Julie Wise from the Highland County Community Action Program spoke of seniors who were not eating over the weekend when congregate meals were not served. Wise raised concerns about cuts to the Community Service Block Grant (CSBG), which funds programs for senior nutrition in Highland county. Cuts to CSBG would mean that fewer older Ohioans in Highland County would be able to get meals.

Rhonda Holbrook from the Adams Brown Counties Economic Opportunities spoke of a man who had asked for food assistance and admitted that he had not had the insulin that he needed to manage his diabetes for two weeks.

“This is what is happening,” stated Jennifer Howland from the Highland District hospital. She shared a story of a patient who was on chemotherapy, but was living in a trailer without running water or electricity.

These are just a few examples of the costs of hunger that we are already paying for, said Nora Nees, Director of Child and Senior Nutrition at the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. She referred to a recent study that quantified the costs of hunger. On average, each household pays $1,548 for the costs of hunger including increased medical costs, decreased worker productivity and the cost of private charity, each year.

Lisa Tumbleson-Davis from the Adams Brown Counties Economic Opportunities spoke about the need for free tax services and application assistance for individuals in the local community. “People do not want to have to ask for help,” Tumbleson-Davis stated, but with The Ohio Benefit Bank™, Tumbleson-Davis and other community members can assist families in free tax filing and private benefits applications.

Teresa Carr from the Adams County Senior Citizen’s Council spoke about her concern for her local community, “I thought this would be a great place to raise my kids,” she stated. Carr was concerned about the number of older adults who need utility assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program or LiHEAP, and the vulnerability of those programs in the federal budget. Carr also spoke of older Ohioans who were at risk of losing their homes to pay for medical bills, “they have to give up so much just to survive.”

Ralph Jennings, Brown County Commissioner thanked the audience for attending and speaking out – stating that the summit was an example of how to communicate with elected officials. Representative Danny Bubp from Ohio’s 88th House district recognized the need and challenges facing the local community, including unemployment and declining incomes. Danielle Nameth, a representative from Senator Sherrod Brown’s office was appreciative of the work of the individuals and agencies at the summit and spoke of the Senator’s support for emergency food programs, “It’s not spending, it’s an investment” stated Nameth. Also present to listen to the local community was Stephen Carraway, from Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s office.

Will Petrik from Advocates for Ohio’s Future ended the event with several ways for participants to get involved, including signing a Joint Memorandum, participating in a Story Banking project, Ohio Speaks, or joining Advocates for Ohio’s Future, a broad based coalition of health and human services providers.

The event was previewed in the Highland County Press: http://highlandcountypress.com/Main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=74&ArticleID=9842

Tell your congressperson to protect anti-hunger programs!

October 14 is the deadline for Committees to provide recommendations to the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction (the Supercommittee), but right now the political threats and opportunities are multiple and ongoing, and so we must continue our steady drumbeat about protecting anti-hunger programs at every possible opportunity. 

Because the Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill was significantly better than the House version, it is important we continue to register our support right now to get the best possible outcome. 

Use our toll free number to help us track our impact. Just dial 1-877-698-8228 to be connected directly to both of your senators. 

• The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks urges Senator Brown and Senator Portman to vote for passage of the Senate's FY2012 Agriculture Appropriations legislation when it comes to the Senate floor in the coming weeks and to oppose any amendments that would strip funding from valuable food assistance programs.
• Our foodbank and food pantries ability to serve our community is at stake. This bill funds programs such as the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) which are critical to addressing hunger in low-income families all across the state.   
• Hunger is a real problem in Ohio.  With unemployment stuck above 9% nationally and millions of families struggling to find work or working for reduced wages, the need for food assistance in our community remains incredibly high.  Protecting anti-hunger programs throughout the budget process is critical to reducing hunger in our state.
• One out of every four children in Ohio are hungry - They cannot wait while politicians debate.

Join OASHF in signing this federal sign-on letter

The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks has signed on to a Federal Sign-On Letter and we are helping to circulate the letter and build support across Ohio.

Will you help us send a message to Ohio's Congressional delegation about the federal budget by signing on here?

The goal of the letter is to strengthen the resolve of Senator Portman and other key members of Ohio's Congressional delegation to advocate for a deficit-reduction plan that does not increase poverty or income inequality.

 Please sign on now.

 Advocates for Ohio's Future will deliver the letter to Senator Portman and the rest of Ohio's Congressional delegation. It is important that they hear from organizations in Ohio that cutting major health, human service, and early care & education programs that serve the most vulnerable is not the answer to the nation's budget problems.

If you are not in a position to speak on behalf of your organization, you can help by sharing this with your Executive Director and encouraging your organization to act now.

You can also help by forwarding this opportunity to agencies and organizations you work with locally and across Ohio.

Thank you for lending your name to build our strength and our voice.

New data show 16.4 percent of Ohio households struggling with hunger

OASHF Urges Congress to Protect Federal Nutrition Programs during Deficit Negotiations

COLUMBUS-- One in six households in Ohio struggled with hunger on average in the years 2008-2010, according to new data released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its annual report on food insecurity. Nationally, more than 48.8 million people (16.1%) lived in households that were food insecure in 2010 –up from 36.2 million in 2007. In 2010, nationally, 32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children faced a daily risk of hunger.

The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks (OASHF) noted that the Ohio number released today covers the three years during the heart of the recession. The rate is well above the 12.6 percent for the years 2003 to 2005, demonstrating the downturn’s depth and impact on Ohio.

Among the 16.4 percent of households in Ohio considered to be food insecure during the 2008-2010 period, 6.6 percent were considered to have “very low food security.” People that fall into this USDA category had more severe problems, experiencing deeper hunger and cutting back or skipping meals on a more frequent basis for both adults and children. From 2003 to 2005 the percentage of Ohioans considered to have “very low food security” was 3.8 percent.

“We continue to see evidence of the struggles facing too many people in our state. Congress must support job creation while protecting the federal nutrition programs and other parts of our nation’s safety net against deficit cutting measures,” said OASHF executive director, Lisa Hamler-Fugitt. “Weakening these programs would cause irreparable harm to low-income people in Ohio and across the nation.”

The number of Ohioans in need of help and turning to Ohio’s emergency food assistance network, comprised of Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks and their more than 3,300 member agencies is viewed as a sign of the pain being felt throughout Ohio by slow turnaround of our nation’s economy. Over the last three months, nearly two million Ohioans were served throughout the emergency food pantries, with 35 percent of those being children and 14 percent being adults over the age of 60, members of our greatest generation.

At the same time, as of June 2011, 15.3 percent of all Ohioans were in receipt of SNAP/Food Assistance formally known as Food Stamps, a 64.5 percent increase since June 2006. Over the course of the last five years, Ohioans have been left to cope with the loss of employment, increasing wage stagnation and a slow economic recovery, felt both in Ohio and across the nation.

“With more than 1.767 million of Ohio’s total population of 11.542 million residents in receipt of SNAP/ Food Assistance as of June 2011, programs that are available to help in a person’s time of need are working and need to continue. Millions of Americans continue to struggle to put food on the table. It is time to strengthen, not weaken the nation’s safety net,” said Hamler-Fugitt. “There’s a reason that every bipartisan deficit reduction plan proposed over the past year – including those from Simpson-Bowles Commission and the Gang of Six – has made sure to keep these programs intact and protected from cuts.”

About the USDA Report
Since 1995, the United States Department of Agriculture, using data from surveys conducted annually by the Census Bureau, has released estimates of the number of people in households that are food insecure. Food insecure households are those that are not able to afford an adequate diet at all times in the past 12 months. The report also includes food insecurity rates for each state, but for states it uses three-year averages to give a better estimate of the number of households experiencing food insecurity. Experts agree that the Census/USDA measure of food insecurity is a conservative one, with the result that only households experiencing substantial food insecurity are so classified.

Older Ohioans struggle with hunger at alarming rate

A new report, “Food Insecurity Among Older Adults, released this week by the AARP Foundation in partnership with the University Kentucky, examines hunger risk for older adults.

According to the study, hunger for this population - jumped almost 80 percent since 2001, with more than 9 percent of older Americans considered at risk for hunger in 2009. Ohio ranks 10th in the nation for the percentage of those ages 50 to 59 at risk of hunger (10.41 percent).

"Food Insecurity Among Older Adults" is the first report to examine the youngest of the baby boomers -- those between the ages of 50 and 59. This group faces the unusual challenge of being too young for Social Security and Medicare and too old for aid that's allotted for people with children. The slumping economy has played a major role in the spike, as employment for this population is harder to secure. In 2009, 4.9 million in this age group were at risk for hunger, a 38 percent increase from two years earlier. The report also found that food insecurity has a negative impact on broader health outcomes, limiting this group’s ability to function independently by increasing the aging process an average of 14 years.

“Older Ohioans are facing unprecedented barriers in their lives,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, OASHF executive director.

“At a time when older Ohioans should be able to contribute to the workforce or enjoy the rewards of a long life of work, they are instead struggling to find where their next meal is coming from. We must do all that we can to ensure programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/Food Stamps (SNAP), Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) are strengthened as more and more Ohioans, of all ages and widening income brackets, find themselves in need.”

Programs that provide emergency food for older Ohioans, like many other safety net programs, are at risk of reduced funding as the federal budget is examined and the Special Joint Committee to Congress looks at reshaping the nation’s spending.

“We cannot afford to let our hungry go without. The cost on our society if we do not invest money today in emergency food programs such as TEFAP, CSFP, and EFSP will be measured in skyrocketing future healthcare costs,” said Hamler-Fugitt.

Though the risk is on the rise, this is the first year in his administration that President Obama failed to propose additional funding for nutrition programs for older Americans.
Learn more and view the entire “Food Insecurity Among Older Americans” study: www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/aarp_foundation/pdf_2011/AARPFoundation_HungerReport_2011.pdf

New study shows 26.5% of Ohio children live at risk of hunger

Map the Meal Gap Child Food Insecurity 2011: Data Available for the First Time by County

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger and Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, released a new study this week which reveals in Ohio 26.5 percent of children under the age of 18 are struggling with hunger (some 731,040 children).

The study, “Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011,” also reveals that there are children struggling with hunger in every county in America. Nationally, while one in six Americans overall is food insecure, the rate for children is much higher: nearly one in four children is food insecure.

“The number of children who are at risk of hunger is startling to many individuals, but this number comes as no surprise to those involved in Ohio’s emergency food assistance network. At a time when more and more parents are finding themselves out of work and stretching what little resources they have left to make ends meet, children are feeling the effects of our state’s depleted economy. We must stand up for our state’s most vulnerable populations, especially Ohio’s children, and ensure that the resources necessary to feed our future are available," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, OASHF executive director.

The following data for Ohio is reported in the study and can be viewed on an interactive map on Feeding America's website:
- 26.5 percent of children in Ohio are food insecure.
- 60 percent of food insecure children in Ohio live in a household with incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning that they and their families could be eligible for help, including federal child nutrition programs.
- 40 percent of food insecure children in Ohio live in a household with incomes above 185 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning that they are not eligible for assistance from federal child nutrition programs. The only programs available to serve these children and their families are the emergency food assistance network and state funded food programs, operated by OASHF and Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks.

An executive summary of the report can be found at: http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap/map-executive-summary.aspx

The study is an important tool because it provides critical information for developing strategies to alleviate child hunger. Throughout Ohio, the percentage of food insecurity among children ranges from below one in five in Delaware County (19.4 percent) to more than one in three in Pike County (38.5 percent)
By providing additional details about the face of child food insecurity at the county level, the study will enable food banks, the community based agencies they serve and policy makers to redefine approaches in addressing needs of hungry children and their families and develop more effective policy solutions.

This research is supported by ConAgra Foods Foundation. The Foundation funded this research with the goal of advancing the collective understanding of child hunger in America, so that resources at the local and national level could be better leveraged to help children and families in need.

The research is based on “Map the Meal Gap 2011: Food Insecurity Estimates at the County Level,” supported by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Nielsen.

Foodbank director says food program cuts ultimately cost more

In a letter to the editor published in the Columbus Dispatch today, Mid-Ohio Foodbank President Matt Habash warns against proposed funding cuts to federal nutrition programs such as the Commodities Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), pointing out that "the need to care for these at-risk neighbors won't go away."

The CSFP, which provides a monthly box of food to eligible low-income seniors, helps more than 20,400 Ohioans, with thousands more eligible seniors on the waiting lists. The cuts being considered would immediately remove some 4,500 seniors from the program. To learn more about how the proposed cuts will affect food programs in Ohio, check out this report: Ohio Impact of H.R. 2112. 

"Food insecurity among seniors exacerbates disease and increases disability, inflating health-care expenditures associated with longer hospital or nursing-home stays. In short, these costs adversely impact other taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid, putting even more burden on working Ohioans," Habash wrote.

To read the letter on the Columbus Dispatch website and share your thoughts, click here.
Visit the Senior Nutrition Programs page on OASHF's website to learn more about the work Ohio's foodbanks are doing to fight senior hunger and how you can get involved.

One in four Ohio Households with Children Reporting Food Hardship

This just in from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC): More than 26.3 percent of households with children in Ohio reported they suffered from "food hardship" (an inability to afford enough food) in 2009-2010.

FRAC announced the numbers in the latest report in its “Food Hardship in America" series, which analyzes data that were collected by Gallup and provided to FRAC. FRAC has analyzed responses to the question: “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

Some food hardship details for Ohio:

•In 2009-2010, 26.3 percent of households with children in Ohio said they were unable to afford enough food. The food hardship rate for households without children was 16.6 percent.
•All but two congressional districts in Ohio had more than one in four households with children reporting food hardship in 2008-2010.

Ohio Food Hardship 2009-2010:
National Rank: 20th
Households with children 26.3%
Households without children 16.6%

"These data demonstrate...that this is not the time to make our safety net weaker," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, director Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, "and Congress must ensure that all deficit negotiations protect nutrition programs and other parts of the safety net that help low-income people.”

The data were gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, which has interviewed more than one million households since January 2008.

In 16 of Ohio’s 18 Congressional districts at least one in four households with children answered “yes” to the question: “Were their times over the past year when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”





Find out more at FRAC’s website http://frac.org/pdf/aug2011_food_hardship_report_children.pdf
Find out more at OASHF’s website: http://admin.oashf.org/uploads/news/Food_Hardship_2011_Release_081111.pdf

Nowhere Else to Turn

In a guest column in the Dayton Daily News, Shared Harvest Foodbank executive director Tina Osso responded to accusations made in a recent article surrounding fraud in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

As she points out in her commentary, "The government’s Food and Nutrition Service estimates indicate that the national rate of food stamp trafficking declined from about 3.8 cents per dollar of benefits redeemed in 1993 to about one cent per dollar during the years 2002 to 2005."

Read Tina's full column and get involved in the conversation.

Shifting the Perception of Poverty

Across Ohio, the need for the emergency food assistance network continues to rise. In the five-county region served by Shared Harvest Foodbank, the foodbank has more than doubled its food distribution since 2007.

Speaker of the House John Boehner’s 8th Congressional District falls almost entirely within Shared Harvest’s region. Like many other districts in Ohio and across the country, childhood poverty is on the rise in Boehner’s district. Nearly 30,000 children, or over 19 percent of children in the 8th District, are living below the federal poverty level. Overall, 14 percent of Ohioans in the 8th District are living in poverty.

The story painted by these numbers is not unique to the 8th District; it is a story prevalent throughout Ohio. Shared Harvest’s Executive Director, Tina Osso, has struggled to draw attention to the needs of the people her foodbank serves. Osso hopes that a shift in perception of poverty will result from the Great Recession.

“I think the best thing that could come out of this Great Recession is for people to understand that it only takes one or two paychecks for most people before they’re standing in line (for food assistance),” says Osso.

OASHF works together with commodity partners across Ohio to direct surplus and unmarketable agricultural products to hungry Ohioans. Read more about the Ohio Agriculture Clearance Program and other innovate programs here: http://www.oashf.org/programs/

To read more from Tina Osso’s interview with The Nation, visit The Nation’s blog.

Speak Up for National Service!

The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks proudly sponsors one of the largest AmeriCorps programs in the country. Our national service members provide both direct and indirect services throughout the state, bolstering nonprofit organizations and bringing Ohioans closer to self-sufficiency every day.

Funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service will be eliminated without your help. Read some of the stories of help and hope from current and former national service members, as well as the community organizations that would be devastated without their service. Then, ACT NOW by calling your legislators and signing the SaveAmeriCorps petition.


"Call me crazy, but I honestly think I can make a difference, a lasting impact in my country. Serving in AmeriCorps is what I see as an investment in an area that can not only have a huge impact on my own future, but essentially an impact for the country as a whole."

"To take AmeriCorps away would crush me, because I know the names and have seen the faces of the individuals who will not get the assistance they need."

"It's easy to turn the other cheek knowing that you don't depend on that food pantry to feed your family. It's easy to close that homeless shelter when you have somewhere else to stay warm and sleep regardless. It's easy to condemn people who make mistakes to lifelong punishments, and it's easy not to think about how we condemn their children, and their children's children, too. The easy thing to do is to cut them loose, and to go home and live comfortably. But it is also the wrong thing to do. If I need to explain why, then I fear no amount of letters can make a
difference. Save AmeriCorps."

"Our community will suffer because it would open the gap between the have and have nots which VISTA has work tirelessly to close."

"I do not wear a military uniform and I do not fight on the frontlines of armed conflicts but I made an oath to serve my county and am committed to fight for the recognition and revitalization of our American neighborhoods. As a nation moving forward from crisis perhaps a sense of duty to our local communities is a force that we should choose to invest in and- at the very least- should not underestimate."

"In large part, the contributions of these AmeriCorps members cannot be measured. How does one measure the value of heat restored to a freezing family or the humbling feeling that overcomes a volunteer the first time they change a life for the better? But warm feelings and touching stories do not drive budget processes. Fortunately, the results produced by these members stand alone and support the continuation of funding to the CNCS."

"Denying funding to AmeriCorps would put thousands of members out of work in a time when unemployment is already at record highs. Cutting AmeriCorps wouldn‘t just put AmeriCorps members out of work, though. It would also cripple the hundreds of thousands of non-profit agencies all over the United States that rely on AmeriCorps members to help them serve their communities."

"Our military service men and women work long hours and struggle bravely to protect our country. Similarly, our national service members work long hours and struggle bravely to serve and protect our most cherished resources—our communities and our neighbors."

"As one of the agencies that supports the work of the Americorps VISTA program and who has sponsored a VISTA member for the past two years I am greatly saddened. Our small non-profit agency and the clients we serve in this neighborhood rely on our VISTA member to coordinate all of our volunteers who do the work that we cannot afford to hire others to do."

"The Corporation of National and Community Service is a foundational element to
the moral fabric of our country and supporting such programs sends a powerful message that our communities are ultimately strengthened by civic engagement."

OpportunityNation Coalition

The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks has recently joined the OpportunityNation Coalition. OpportunityNation is building a national coalition of non-profits, business leaders, social entrepreneurs, community and faith-based organizations in an effort to build support for a non-partisan agenda for economic opportunity and mobility.

OpportunityNation wants to refresh and rebuild the American Dream for every man, woman and child. We’re going to do this by demanding that our leaders, from the places we live all the way to Washington, make a commitment to restoring the American Dream. These past few years have certainly been difficult. Some of us have lost our grip on the American Dream, while others never had a chance to reach it. Together, we’re going to make opportunity real for everyone. We are thrilled to join what promises to be an exciting and historic grassroots movement.

On top of all this, we are excited to announce some terrific news: OpportunityNation has just been named the cause partner for the Roots Jam Session! The Roots Jam Session is an annual celebration that takes place the night before the Grammy Awards. The festivities feature many A-list performers and, of course, the Grammy winning band and one of Rolling Stone Magazines’ 20 Greatest Live Acts in the World: The Roots!

Each year The Roots Jam session picks a non-profit cause partner for the event, and we are excited and honored by this chance to highlight the work we are doing together.
Even as we look forward to this exciting event, our work is just getting started. Please visit opportunitynation.org and signup to learn more about our campaign and help us develop an opportunity agenda.

We hope you join us in engaging with OpportunityNation and supporting all of our work to make the American Dream a reality.