Ohio prisons mustn’t leave food banks high and dry

At a time when the scope of hunger in Ohio shows no signs of receding and when demand for assistance continues to spiral, this is no time for the state to lessen its commitment to assist the state’s network of charitable food banks.

But that is precisely the perception for many of the 12 members of the Ohio Association of Food banks now that the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has decided to shut down its network of 10 prison farms.

The closings will affect operations that cover 12,500 acres and that include 2,300 beef cattle and 1,000 dairy cattle. It will also impact about 220 prisoner farm laborers and about 70 staff members who will be transferred to other jobs.

For Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the OAF, the closings translate into a distressing loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds of vegetables and produce that have helped to fill many food-bank shelves across the state through a public-private partnership between the ODRC and the food-bank association.

Fortunately, the farm shutdowns will not have a noticeable impact on operations at the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and its network of 148 food pantries in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

According to Michael Iberis, executive director of the Youngstown-based nonprofit, the agency receives no food from the partnership. That’s because none of the prison farms is located close enough to the Mahoning Valley to justify the high distribution and shipping costs.

REASONS FOR CLOSINGS

Gary Mohr, director of the ODRC, explained that the end of a century of prison farming in the Buckeye State results from concerns over appropriate rehabilitation and over security issues of smuggling drugs and other contraband onto the farms.

The latter issue could be addressed through tougher security and monitoring of the prisoner farmers.

His other rationale is at least open to debate. Mohr argues that the rehabilitative skills gleaned from farming and food production are an anachronism to re-entry into the working world of the 21st century.

That argument, however, is less than convincing. After all, the Buckeye State remains a national leader in food production and agriculture. That sector contributes about $100 billion yearly in economic output, and it accounts for about 14 percent of all state jobs.

One group that is not buying the state’s argument is the Ohio Association of Civil Service Employees, which represents state prison workers. In a statement, that union disparages the decision to close the farms as one executed “without much explanation, rationale or plan. ... Unfortunately, we believe the impetus for this change is purely political. It has nothing to do with DR&C’s core mission of recidivism or safety. This is about dollars and cents for corporate interests,” said union President Christopher Mabe.

We’d like to believe, however, that greed did not trump need in the state’s decision. But regardless of the cause, food banks are left as potential victims at a time of growing demand for help. The association’s food banks in 2015 served a record 197 million pounds of food to 9.6 million Ohioans, one third of them children. In the Valley alone, Second Harvest last year distributed 10.4 million pounds of food.

On the plus side, however, the state indicated this week that it will be willing to work with food banks to play a continuing role as a donor partner after the farms close. Toward that end, talks should continue earnestly to ensure ODRC does not leave food banks high and dry come 2017.