Dec. 10—LIMA — This time of year is often known as the season of giving, but for organizations like the West Ohio Food Bank that deal with food insecurity, there is growing uncertainty and concern over how their giving will continue in the months ahead.
This concern stems from the federal government’s failure to pass a new Farm Bill this year, the far-reaching legislation covering nationwide funding for agricultural and nutritional programs. The previous bill, which passed in 2018, had received a one-year extension last year, but that extension expired Sept. 30 with no new bill in place.
Greater demand
While the West Ohio Food Bank is continuing to receive federal funds at levels outlined in that previous bill, the funding has been outpaced by the increased demand for services from the food bank and the food pantries it helps supply. Coupled with the increased demand are the continued effects of higher inflation on food costs, diminishing the buying power of the funding the food bank does receive.
According to West Ohio Food Bank CEO Tommie Harner, the food bank has seen a 19 percent increase in the number of people in its 11-county area seeking assistance from 2021 to 2024. This means that instead of 49,070 people served at the food bank in 2021, the total number of people served in 2024 is now 60,347 as of Monday, according to Harner, with that number including everyone from senior citizens to the working poor to college students. Of that 2024 total, just over 35,000 are people who have just started using food bank services this year.
“There’s such an increase in growth where we continue to have new people coming through our food lines,” she said. “We’re not getting the food in like we did, even when you look at pre-COVID and during COVID. We’re not getting that magnitude of food. So as we’re having more and more people coming through, we’re not having all of that excess food to be able to give, so we’re really having to start cutting back a little bit on just how much we give so at least everybody’s getting something.”
Downstream impact
This issue has reverberated down to local food pantries that rely on the WOFB for food supplies, such as the Churches United Pantry of Lima on South Pierce Street.
“We are seeing as big a need for food as we did during the pandemic,” CUP board vice-president Mary Stepleton said. “We are serving a lot more people than we had been serving. We serve a lot of senior citizens and disabled, and we also serve people who are working. Some months [the income] is just too short to get everything that they need, so they come to us for some food.”
According to Stepleton, by the end of October, the pantry had served the same number of people that it had for all of 2023. In November, the pantry served 1,047 people representing 459 households.
“[The food bank] is our primary source because they can get us food at a greatly discounted price versus going to the grocery,” Stepleton said. “When we go to the grocery and we tell them who we are, we do not get a break at the grocery. We pay what everybody else pays.”
When those purchases include cases of items like peanut butter or canned vegetables, paying market rates instead of going through the food bank means a significant increase in costs for pantries like CUP, Stepleton said.
Bad timing
Along with the failure of legislators to put a new farm bill in place before the Sept. 30 deadline, the future for funding levels for food banks is even more uncertain given the results of last month’s election and the change that comes with a new administration in Washington, D.C. This is especially true given the prospect of a new Department of Government Efficiency that aims to evaluate government spending habits and eliminate what is seen as wasteful expenses.
“I think it’s a little concerning,” Harner said. “We’re getting ready to go into another biennium budget with the state, so we’ve got a couple of lobby days when [Communications and Public Relations Director] Jason [Aldrich] and I will be attending in Columbus trying to meet with those legislators to make sure we’re getting support for what we need. But ultimately, this could really have devastating effects for a lot of people and a lot of organizations if the funding doesn’t come through.”
Harner and Aldrich will also attend meetings in March in Washington, D.C. to make their case to federal lawmakers.
Meeting the need
While the WOFB is holding its own financially for the moment, Harner and Aldrich emphasized how big an impact on their organization comes from donations from the private sector and members of the public.
“Jason gets those calls all the time where people do want to do that year-end giving,” Harner said. “That’s phenomenal and we’re so thankful for that.”
The Churches United Pantry is also able to receive private donations, whether in supplies or in monetary donations given on its website, limacup.org, or by mail to P.O. Box 125, Lima, OH 45802.
One thing Stepleton noted is that along with food donations, hygiene products are also an area of need.
“These are things like toilet paper, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, that kind of thing,” she said. “These are basic things that you and I take for granted that are in our homes and we can put in our shopping carts. They don’t always have that, and if they do have [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits, they do not cover those items.”
Donations can be made to the West Ohio Food Bank online at wofb.org.
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