ONC Reporting –
A recent Ohio Education Association of Food Banks survey found eight in 10 respondents are seeking emergency food supplies from food banks because of higher overall food costs due to inflation.
Earlier this year, pandemic-era funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was cut in 35 states, including Ohio, and the change lowered the amount of food participating families could afford by an average of around 90-dollars per month.
In Youngstown, April Alexander with Heart Reach Neighborhood Ministries says that while stores such as Dollar General are often stocked with processed food, families lack access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
“A lot of times, in trying to manage a budget, they are choosing foods that are lower in cost but higher in sodium and some of the other less desirable nutrients, if I can even call them that.”
According to Feeding America, Mahoning County, where Youngstown is located, had a food-insecurity rate of more than 13-percent in 2021 — meaning more than 30-thousand people were without access, at times, to enough food for a healthy, active life.
Alexander says transportation also poses a barrier to accessing fresh groceries.
“I wish people really understood what it is to live in poverty, and the barriers that people face, that this is not a matter of people being lazy, that this is not a matter of people not caring enough for their families.”
More than one million people live with food insecurity in Ohio, and according to a U-S-D-A study, in 2020, more than ten percent of the U-S population lives with food insecurity.