Second Harvest taps into Benefit Bank

YOUNGSTOWN — Second Harvest Food Bank of Mahoning Valley has tied into an Internet program that helps low-income people get all the benefits for which they are eligible.

In addition, the privately developed program, called the Benefit Bank, has the potential of pumping thousands of dollars, possibly millions, into the local economy, said Michael Iberis, local Second Harvest executive director.

He said there is $35 billion a year in unclaimed benefits at the national level.

Iberis said he thinks Second Harvest Mahoning Valley is the first agency to employ the Benefit Bank in the counties it serves — Trumbull, Columbiana and Mahoning.

Second Harvest Mahoning Valley, which distributed some 5 million pounds in 2006 to 170 hunger relief groups in the tri-county area, hopes to persuade some of its affiliated organizations to offer Benefit Bank services at their locations.

To facilitate that, Second Harvest Mahoning Valley is offering training to hunger-group personnel on how to access the information and help their clients get benefits they may be missing for one reason or another.

The Second Harvest Benefit Bank project is funded through an $86,000 VISTA grant received by the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, which represents 12 area food banks in the state, including the one in the Mahoning Valley.

Second Harvest here received about $7,167 of the grant to support VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer Daniel Means of Salem, who has received training on the Benefit Bank program and will in turn train people at the various hunger-relief sites.

Iberis said part of Second Harvest’s mission is to provide education and advocacy, under which he thinks the Benefit Bank fits perfectly. “We want to be part of the communitywide response to poverty,” he said.

More details about the Benefit Bank are in Monday's Vindicator, and Vindy.com.