Jackson said the food bank has told their partnering pantries and other organizations to expect a 10-15% increase in requests for food: an expectation complicated by supply chain issues and rising inflation.
The food bank tries to keep three months’ worth of food supplies on hand. Now, it has roughly one month of food in its possession.
Her organization is also working to put out messaging about the federal change to flag families to the change coming to their electronic benefits card.
The federally funded program’s intent is to supplement the food budget of people in need so they can purchase nutritional food and move toward self-sufficiency. Eligibility varies based on factors such as income and household size, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The emergency allotment ending in February means participants will receive only one, normal monthly payment, typically loaded onto an electronic benefits card.
The federal emergency rules were implemented during the COVID-19 public health emergency, providing SNAP recipients with the maximum allotment. Individual recipients were entitled to the minimum allotment of $23 each month. The emergency allotment added an additional $258 per month, according to Clark County Department of Job and Family Services director Virginia Martycz.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Households of four, entitled to the maximum allotment of $939 per month, have been receiving an additional $95 per month for the emergency allotment, Martycz said.
More than 23,000 people total — 13,361 adults and 10,135 children — in Clark County receive food assistance, according to preliminary data from the Clark County Department of Job and Family Services for December 2022.
Although the emergency allotments were “never intended to be permanent,” the loss of funds “is always difficult” for families, Martycz said.
“At the start of the pandemic, there was a great deal of uncertainty and concerns regarding families’ ability to take care of themselves,” she said. “The federal government provided as much flexibility as possible to protect and support our most vulnerable citizens.”
And those most vulnerable citizens, Jackson said, are primarily children and senior citizens.
“The increases have been huge over the last few years,” she said. “This type of support was really needed to help children to go to school and to not make our seniors make the choice between medication or keeping their heat on.”
The food bank, too, saw a steady increase of people seeking help with food since the pandemic’s start. Pre-pandemic, the foodbank served roughly 37,000 people in Clark, Champaign and Logan counties. Last year, the food bank served between 48,000 to 50,000 people, according to preliminary data.
Jackson said Second Harvest believes this will be “the new normal” for the next few years.
“During the pandemic, so many people’s lives were completely disrupted,” said Jackson. “It’s going to take years for them to be able to get back to where they were prior to the pandemic.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine last year signed House Bill 45, which approved $25 million in federal relief for the state’s food banks. Second Harvest – which serves three counties – received roughly $500,000 in meal vouchers.
With the meal vouchers, the food bank hopes to purchase meat, eggs and dairy products to give to hungry people.
“We’re really trying to fill up on some of those staples that people can come and get to sort of stretch things out,” Jackson said.
The food bank also plans to host more food distributions to help bring services to people who need them, and Jackson said she hopes people throughout the region remember to donate food goods to their area pantries as they did during the holiday season.
“We have to rally as a community as we always do, to make sure that those basic needs of our community are going to be met,” Jackson said.
By the Numbers:
10,135: Number of Clark County children receiving food assistance through their families
50,000: Estimated number of people served by Second Harvest Food Bank in 2022
23: In dollars, the minimum SNAP allotment of individual recipients
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