ONC Reporting –
Looming federal budget deadlines are just a few weeks away, and food banks in Ohio say the risk of reduced funding for nutrition, health care and other assistance programs, could trigger increased demand in 2024.
According to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, within the past year, eight in ten clients relied on local pantries for help with groceries because of higher food costs.
West Ohio Food Bank C-E-O Tommie Harner says inflation and uncertainty around the next Farm Bill — which helps fund programs such as SNAP — has food banks worried.
She explains that when safety-net funding is slashed or eliminated, hardship increases for families already living paycheck to paycheck.
“If those programs aren’t fully funded as they need to be, we can potentially see an even greater increase. It can really deplete our budgets as well, because we’ll have to start purchasing more food just to make sure that we can keep up with that demand.”
Funding for many critical federal programs that help food banks stock, store and distribute food, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, is set to expire on January 19th.
Congress has also stalled on a new Farm Bill, choosing to instead extend the 2018 version of the legislation until September of this year.
President and C-E-O of Akron Regional Foodbank Dan Flowers says the burden on local organizations that provide services can’t be underestimated when federal benefits shrink.
“One thing that we saw in 2021, when SNAP benefits were extended, we saw a big decrease in the number of people that came into food pantries. There’s a huge correlation between public policy and the number of people that are in need of these services.”
Congress is also proposing funding cuts to the federal Women Infant and Children’s nutrition program, also known as WIC.
The program, which faces an estimated one-billion-dollar shortfall, provides low-income pregnant and postpartum people with fresh produce, breastfeeding support and benefits for children younger than age five.