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.