COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new report from the organization that works on behalf of Ohio’s food banks illustrates the toll the Great Recession has taken.
More than one in six Ohioans has turned to a food bank for help, 40 percent more people than in 2010, according to the Hunger in Ohio 2014 study released Thursday by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.
Cuts in the largest federal food program has meant that the more than 2 million people turning to food banks for help has strained local resources, so the organization is asking the General Assembly for $40 million over two years.
“Despite slight improvements to the economy since the Great Recession, hundreds of thousands of Ohioans remain food insecure. What are even more troubling are the coping strategies and spending tradeoffs these Ohio households often make to survive,” association executive director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt said.
More than 83 percent of the people who used food banks report living in “food insecure households,” meaning that they were without reliable access to adequate amounts of affordable, nutritious food at some point during the past year, the report said.
Of those, 81 percent purchased inexpensive, unhealthy food and 66 percent had to choose between food and medicine or medical care to make ends meet, according to the report.
Between November 2013 and August, Ohio lost more than $235 million in food stamp benefits, Hamler-Fugitt said, so the organization is asking lawmakers to spend $20 million per year in the 2016-17 biennial budget.