The State of Hunger in Ohio in

Year Ohio Median Income (Current $)

Ohio Median Income (2007 $) % Poverty % Unemployment Food Insecurity Hunger Factors

Index

2000 $39,584 $47,854 11.1% 4.0% 9.8%** 7.062007 $46,597 $46,597 13.1% 5.6% 12.2% 8.962008 $47,988 $46,214 13.4% 6.6% 13.3% 9.642009 $45,395 $43,873 15.2% 10.2% 14.8% 12.982010 $46,275 $42,875 15.8% 10.0% 16.4% 13.772011 $45,090 $42,170 16.4% 8.7% 15.5% 14.032012 $46,289 $42,290 16.3% 7.4% 16.1% 13.452013 $48,081 $42,794 16.0% 7.4% 16.0% 13.052014 $49,283 $43,162 15.8% 5.8% 16.9% 12.182015 $51,075 $44,860 14.8% 4.9% 16.1% 10.552016 $52,334 $45,210 14.6% 5.0% 14.8% 10.172017 $54,021 $45,581 14.0% 5.0% 13.7% 9.722018 $56,111 $46,218 13.9% 4.6% 13.2% 9.14

More than a decade since the end of the Great Recession, many Ohioans are still trying to recover

2018 Hunger

Index

9.14

When adjusted for inflation, Ohio median household incomes have nearly returned to pre-recession levels, but despite record-low unemployment, more Ohioans are living in poverty than a decade ago. Wage and income inequality persist, and effects are particularly stark in certain regions of the state. All but two of the poorest 20 counties in Ohio are part of the Appalachian Region.*

*U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2018 Five-Year Estimates, data.census.gov**Note that the 2000 Food Insecurity data is actually from 2002 (closest available)

In 2019, our food pantry network served more than 1.6 million different people*, or nearly 1 in 7 Ohioans. On average, each person visited our pantry network 5.8 times during the year.

We also serve more than 15 million additional meals each year through hot meal sites and shelters.

Some food pantry visitors may come only once or twice during the year, when an unexpected crisis occurs. This might happen when a car breaks down or a parent loses wages at work to stay at home with a sick child.

Others come once every two or three months, sometimes more often in the summer for families with children missing out on school meals, or more often in the winter when utility bills are high. A chronic medical condition or diet-related disease may mean a family or individual needs more help. A job loss may hurt a family’s budget for a longer stretch of time.

Still other food pantry visitors rely regularly on our help. These often include seniors living on fixed incomes that don’t stretch far enough. It can also include people living with disabilities, families with young children, and unemployed adults without access to other safety net programs like SNAP.

*Analysis of FreshTrak (formerly PantryTrak) data for unduplicated individuals served in 2019 by all participating food pantries and duplicated individuals served as reported by remaining food pantries

Clark

Gallia

Perry

Washington

Vinton

Hocking

Lawrence

Scioto

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Clermont

Clinton

Brown

Columbiana

Mahoning

Trumbull

Meigs

Belmont

Harrison

Licking

Knox

Franklin

Monroe

Muskingum

Guernsey

Coshocton

Delaware

Morrow

Noble

Pickaway

Ross

Madison

Marion

Union

CarrollHolmes

Tuscarawas

Summit

StarkWayne

Cuyahoga

Lake

Ashland

Ashtabula

Geauga

Richland

Erie

Crawford

Lorain

Huron Medina

Logan

ChampaignDarke

Butler Warren

Preble

Miami

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HardinAllen

Auglaize

Hancock

Mercer

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Seneca

Shelby

Van Wert

Fulton

Henry

Lucas

Sandusky

Williams

Wood

Montgomery

Greene

Portage

Adams

Jackson

Athens

Morgan

Ottawa

Defiance

Fayette

Fairfield

Jefferson

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More than 3 in 10 Ohioans have incomes low enough to qualify for help from our foodbank network

Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks respond to food insecurity in emergency situations, like when an illness or job loss occurs. But more often, we respond to recurring or ongoing shortfalls in the food budgets of hundreds of thousands of Ohio families. Feeding America’s most recent Map the Meal Gap study found that about half of Ohioans who experience food insecurity live in households with incomes too high to qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. This includes many seniors living on fixed incomes and working families struggling to pay for other basic expenses like health care, housing, and transportation. They have only our hunger relief network to turn to for help when money runs out to buy food.

Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that 3,617,825 Ohioans – or 32 percent of the state’s population – live in households with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, roughly $3,560 per month for a family of four, before taxes. These families live paycheck-to-paycheck, working hard for wages that don’t always leave enough for food after the bills are paid. The share of families in this situation has not significantly changed over the past decade.

Meanwhile, the roughly half of all food insecure Ohioans who do qualify for SNAP only receive an average of $128 per person, per month, or about $4.25 per day – an insufficient amount that usually runs out well before the month is over, leaving no choice but to turn to one of our member food pantries for help.

U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2018 Five-Year Estimatesdata.census.gov

Across Ohio,11 of 12 foodbanks engage in activities specifically aimed atfood insecure college students

FOODBANK

FOODBANK

Snapshot of an aging state:

one out of fivepantry clients are now 60 and olderFor the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, fully one out of every five of our food pantry clients in 2019 were seniors 60 years of age or older. Just a decade ago, fewer than one in seven were seniors. In some areas of the state where Ohio’s population is aging more rapidly and/or more young families are leaving, older adults make up more than one in four of the pantry clients served by foodbanks like the Southeast Ohio Foodbank & Kitchen and the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

Food insecurity among college students is widespread, poorly understood, and often not taken seriously because of a misconception of the higher education landscape. Analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that 71 percent of today’s college students are “non-traditional,” meaning that they have may have dependent children or serve as caregivers, work full-time while taking classes, are financially independent from their parents, are enrolled part-time, did not receive a traditional high school diploma, and/or delayed college enrollment likely for financial reasons. College students are food insecure because they are balancing schoolwork with parenting, wage-earning, and more, all while struggling with the rising cost of education.

Feeding America’s recent College Hunger Landscape report included results from a nationwide survey of its foodbank network. Nationally, of the foodbanks responding to the survey, 86 percent serve food insecure college students in some capacity. In Ohio, it was even higher, at 91 percent. Our foodbanks currently operate or support 10 on-campus food pantries, where students can access take-home groceries for themselves and their families. Additionally, they operate or support 17 mobile or pop-up food distributions on college campuses. These efforts are guided by the leadership of Ohio’s colleges and universities, which recognize that student retention and success requires that the basic needs of students are met.

Across Ohio,11 of 12 foodbanks engage in activities specifically aimed atfood insecure college students

FOODBANK

FOODBANK

Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks support 3,600 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and supplemental programs

Foodbanking 1.0Empowering traditional social service organizations to address and prevent hunger through food pantries and hot meal programsFoodbanks exist because mission-driven organizations like places of worship, shelters and other nonprofits, and social service agencies coalesced decades ago around the need to provide emergency hunger relief. The first foodbank was created in the late 1960s as a warehouse for donated and discarded food.

Many charitable hunger relief organizations have existed for much longer, but before foodbanks existed, they had to stock their shelves with whatever product they could come by through food drives, retail donations, or the generosity of members of their congregations and communities. Foodbanks help the greater community of local hunger relief organizations meet the needs of the people they serve by providing high-quality foods at little to no cost to the 1,791 food pantries and 846 soup kitchens and shelters in our statewide network. This work remains the core of our emergency response to hunger and food insecurity.

Foodbanking 2.0Expanding place-based access to nutritious foods to address hunger as a social determinant of health outcomes, educational attainment, and community wellnessThe work of foodbanks is evolving and expanding to include more strategies to address food insecurity as a social determinant of health. Many of Ohio’s foodbanks now support food pantries and food distributions at hospitals and health care clinics, piloting methods for identifying and targeting patients at-risk for food insecurity. Many also support food pantries, meal programs, and produce giveaways at child care centers, local schools, and on college campuses, at libraries, at senior centers and low-income senior housing complexes, and at parks and recreation centers that are easy to access and meet at-risk households where they live, work, learn, and play.

Foodbanks often offer mobile produce distributions to bring healthy, fresh foods into high-need communities with limited access to full-service grocery stores and/or transportation. Additionally, foodbanks sometimes host their own on-site food pantries, even offering drive-thru pickup popular with working families. These efforts, in partnership with 964 supplemental hunger relief agencies and programs, are all driven by an acknowledgment that we have to go further upstream to prevent hunger and its adverse effects.

Replacing and expanding network capacity to handle fresh, healthy foods through a critical $1 million investment from the State of Ohio over the 2020-21 bienniumOur food pantries can’t store and distribute hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh produce, protein, and dairy items every day without reliable equipment and tools to do the job. Over the 2020-2021 biennium, we will infuse resources for new infrastructure to equip our network for the decade ahead.

116 refrigerators of various sizes to safely store

fresh foods

93 freezers of various sizes to

extend the shelf life of fresh protein

Dozens of other items like pallet jacks,

insulated blankets, shelving, and more

In fiscal year 2020, we will provide:

Adapting to challenges and opportunities in 2020 and beyond

$

External factors often have unintended consequences and unexpected side effects on our work and the way we carry it out. In a changing economy and an evolving sector, we are frequently challenged to adapt and respond to ensure the people we serve aren’t left more vulnerable.

In response to trade imbalances beginning in 2018 and continuing into 2019 and 2020, USDA utilized its TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) network to relieve market oversupply. That meant our foodbanks received approximately 53 million pounds of Trade Mitigation foods and had to work feverishly to find storage and distribution channels for product. This opportunity brought logistical and funding challenges, but also infused high-demand products like fresh milk, produce, and protein into our network, for which our clients were grateful.

USDA Trade Mitigation Food Purchase and Distribution Program

Following the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and changes to the deduction for charitable giving, as well as due to the changing retail environment in which grocers and manufacturers have razor-thin margins for profit, individual monetary donations and retail food donations continue to decline. Our foodbanks work creatively to make their work as efficient as possible, which includes heavy reliance on the generosity of volunteers.

Declining Charitable Donations

Clients seeking help from our network are required to complete eligibility forms in order to receive food. Our foodbanks utilize software platforms to allow member agencies to collect those forms electronically. This functionality not only allows us to ensure greater compliance with federal and state regulations, but also empowers us to use the data we collect to assess opportunities for improvement in our services, from analyzing client zip codes to identifying underserved neighborhoods to adapting hours of service based on periods of highest demand.

Improving and Expanding the Adoption of Technology

Major policy proposals threaten hundreds of millions of dollars in SNAP benefits for low-income Ohioans

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently serves just over 1.3 million Ohioans. That’s down from peak enrollment in 2012 and 2013, when 1.8 million Ohioans relied on the program for basic help with food. Since then, some economic recovery has finally reached low-income working families, who have exited SNAP after gaining greater stability. Others, especially unemployed and underemployed adults without dependents, can no longer participate due to reimplementation of harsh work requirements.

Proposed Legislation or Rule Change What would it change about SNAP? What would the impact be?

H.B. 200 (Introduced in Ohio House in 2019)

This bill would make several drastic changes to SNAP in Ohio, including extending work

requirements to people with children under 6 and adults up to age 60.

Changes would impact stay-at-home parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, older

employees struggling with extended unemployment, and more. Reduced benefits and significant

increases in administrative costs to the State.

S.B. 165 (Introduced in Ohio Senate in 2019)

This bill would require that Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards, used to make SNAP

purchases, include a photo of a designated individual from each SNAP household.

The requirement would cost the State at least $15 million in the first year and $1 million every

following year. It has been considered and abandoned by 17 other states.

USDA Rule Change to Work Requirement Waivers

This rule was finalized in late 2019 and is set to be implemented beginning April 1, 2020. It would rescind work requirement waivers for at

least 29 additional Ohio counties.

An estimated 20,000 individuals could lose SNAP benefits immediately. Additionally, SNAP will not be able to respond quickly to prevent hunger during

the next downturn or recession.

USDA Rule Change to Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility

This rule would eliminate a longstanding provision that gives states flexibility to adopt

less restrictive income and asset tests, creating additional administrative burdens and hardship.

Households with even limited savings accounts or retirement assets may lose eligibility for SNAP. Shockingly, many school-aged children could lose

access to free school meals.

USDA Rule Change to Standard Utility Allowance

This rule would alter the way states can calculate a Standard Utility Allowance to

determine how much a household spends to heat and cool its home.

An estimated 4 in 10 Ohio households would lose an average $45 per month in SNAP benefits, harming seniors, people with disabilities, and low-

income working families with children most.

So, what is the state of hunger in Ohio in 2020, really?Food insecurity in Ohio has nearly recovered to pre-recession levels, more than 12 years since the recession began. Fortunately, federal nutrition programs like SNAP, and emergency hunger relief programs like the ones we support, were there to put food on the table for families when record numbers of them were out of work. Food insecurity looks different now. It’s what we call the “new normal” for some of the Ohioans hurting the most. And the systems we have in place to cope with this “new normal” are inadequate.

Older adults are struggling to piece together enough to survive on with limited incomes, and many have taken their grandchildren into their homes as their adult children grapple with addiction while in recovery or incarcerated. Working families with children live under the weight of student loan debt, rising health care costs, expensive child care, and lack of affordable housing. Other vulnerable people, especially those living with disabilities, exiting the foster care system, struggling with homelessness, reentering society after a prison sentence, or returning to civilian life as veterans, need ongoing support to meet their basic needs.

We have hope that we will make real strides in addressing hunger as a symptom of a greater problem of economic inequality and injustice and as a social determinant of health. To succeed in those goals in 2020 and beyond, our public policy and social service systems must continue to advance and promote increased access to nutritious foods for every person. We’re eager to be at the table to work together on solutions.

Ohio Association of Foodbanks

Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger

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Released February 2020