Governor asks residents to help feed hungry Ohioans

By Marc Kovac

Some Valley charities report a 38 percent increase in the number of people seeking aid.

COLUMBUS — Gov. Ted Strickland urges Ohioans and businesses in the state to support the hungry and keep food pantries well-stocked through the economic downturn.

“If everyone gives a little bit, the people of Ohio could have the food they need,” he said recently.

During this holiday season, “there are Ohioans — children, older folks and families — who desperately need the help that is provided through the Second Harvest food banks,” the governor added.

“We need not look far to see neighbors and friends and strangers who struggle,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens receive help both with heating and with food. ... There are people coming for food now who in the past were contributors to this effort to help others. And now they find themselves in circumstances where they need to come for help.”

Strickland spoke at Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks facility near downtown Columbus.

The group received a $300,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation to pay for food purchases for the needy throughout the state. Wal-Mart also donated $100,000 to the state’s Home Energy Assistance Program, which covers home heating costs for eligible residents.

Second Harvest distributes groceries to 12 food banks and some 3,000-member charities located in all 88 counties. Last year, the group provided some 97 million pounds of food to the needy; from July 1 through Sept. 30 of this year, it served more than 1.6 million Ohioans, including 213,000 senior citizens and 617,000 children.

Job losses, increased food costs and other economic factors have boosted demands on food banks. In the Youngstown area, for example, some charities have reported a 38 percent increase in the number of people seeking food assistance, said Michael Iberis, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.

At mid-December, his group had distributed about 6 million pounds of food for the year, a 20 percent increase over last year.

“More and more senior citizens are coming to us indicating that the resources are running out and that they’re finding it difficult to make it day to day and decide whether to buy medicine or food,” Iberis said.

“The data clearly illustrates that Ohio is facing the most extraordinary crisis of all times,” added Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the association’s executive director. “The state’s emergency food network, a critical safety net for the hungriest of our state’s citizens, is on the verge of being unable to meet the unprecedented demand.”

From 2006 through this year, the number of requests for emergency food has grown by 1 million, and demand is expected to continue to increase and more Ohioans find themselves out of work, Hamler-Fugitt said.

“As temperatures drop below freezing, more and more people around the state of Ohio are finding themselves stretching their limited budgets to meet the high costs of heating,” she said. “In fact, higher utility costs have forced many low-income Ohioans to choose between paying their home heating bills and buying enough food for their family to eat.”

mkovac@dixcom.com