Hunger in Valley takes no holiday; commit to help

Once again this year, Mahoning Valley residents proved their mettle by reaping success in one of the region’s largest food- and fund-raising drives for the more than 90,000 people among us who find themselves in or teetering on the brink of poverty.

This year’s just-completed Project Feed Our Valley campaign, spearheaded by our broadcast partner 21 WFMJ- TV, ranks as one of the most productive campaigns in its noble nine-year history, according to food bank officials.

Although final counts on food and funds raised remain incomplete, the drive, which ended this week, brought in more than 60,000 pounds of food and considerable cash contributions, according to Becky Miller, resource development manager for Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. That’s on top of the $516,969 and 526,388 pounds of food collected in the PFOV campaign over the previous eight years.

We commend all who contributed in any way to this year’s success. At the same time, however, the campaign’s end in no way signals an end to the enduring need for hunger relief in our community. Poverty, food insecurity and hunger remain communitywide challenges that require communitywide attention, compassion and action 365 days a year.

SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM

One need only take a passing glance at a report titled “State of Poverty in Ohio” released a few months ago by the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies for proof of ongoing deprivation in Ohio in general and in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in particular.

It reports that 32 percent of Ohioans have experienced at least two consecutive months of living below the poverty line in the past three years. In the Mahoning Valley, 95,626 individuals were counted as living in poverty in 2014. Of that total, 41 percent of African-Americans and 60.5 percent of single mothers with children have fallen into that abyss.

What’s more, the pockets of poverty in our state and region have expanded dramatically since the turn of the 21st century. Suburban indigence has skyrocketed. According to OACAA, while the poverty rate in Youngstown has increased 21 percent since 2000, the poverty rate for the city’s suburbs has skyrocketed a whopping 60.5 percent in the same time frame.

As Michael Iberis, executive director of the Youngstown-based food bank, said after release of that report, “It is very disappointing that chronic poverty and hunger has been in the Mahoning Valley for so long that many people have given up hope that better days will ever come. As a community, we need to recognize and attempt to reconcile the situation as best we can.’’

ASSISTANCE MUST CONTINUE

Toward those ends, our community cannot rest on its laurels from the singular success of the 2015 Project Feed Our Valley campaign. The task of marshalling forces to combat hunger must continue unabated in the days, weeks and months head.

As Miller of the Valley food bank put it, “As the weather gets colder, the need gets greater.”

The winter months also are critical for the food bank in amassing a stockpile of foodstuffs for the particularly heavy late spring and summer months, when schools – a source of free meals for thousands of Valley children – close , and demand for the food bank’s services balloons.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of ways to help. Donations of nonperishable food items can be dropped off at the food bank at 2805 Salt Springs Road or at permanent drop-off sites at Sparkle markets and other locations listed on the agency’s website (mahoning-valleysecondharvest.org). The website also serves as a repository for monetary contributions and a launching pad for community and school groups to begin food- and fund-raising service projects for Second Harvest.

As the new year approaches and the need for communitywide food assistance grows, resolve to lend a hand to the praiseworthy efforts of Second Harvest as one concrete means to fight hunger in our Valley in the short term and to greatly reduce its scope in the long term.