COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two recent reports indicate that a great many Ohioans are hungry and advocates are asking state lawmakers to help fund efforts to feed them.
According to the Map the Meal Gap 2015 report, released Tuesday by Feeding America, 16.9 percent of Ohioans suffer from “food insecurity,” a rate that is higher than the national rate of 15.8 percent and higher than all other Midwestern states except Missouri, said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.
The report also found that about one in four children in Ohio live in food insecure households, she said.
“We may be six years out from the end of the Great Recession, but the economy has not recovered for everyone. More than one in six Ohioans still struggle just to afford enough food for themselves and their families, and they are forced to make tough choices every day to cope,” Hamler-Fugitt said.
Hamler-Fugitt is calling on Ohio House Republicans to add an additional $5.5 million per year for the Ohio Food Program and Agricultural Clearance Program when they release their version of the next two-year state budget.
The growing number of Ohioans seeking help from foodbanks since the recession, combined with a reduction of $357 million in federal food stamp benefits, has caused demand for foodbank service to soar by 40 percent since 2010, Hamler-Fugitt said.
Another report, released last week by the Food Research and Action Center, found that 18.1 percent of Ohioans reported not having enough money to food food for themselves or their families sometime during the previous year, Hamler-Fugitt said.
She says that finding ranked Ohio 19th in the country for “worst food hardship rates” in 2014, second only to Michigan, which ranked 14th.