Ohio Pantries Scramble as Food Assistance is Disrupted

Ohio food pantries reported a sharp increase in demand Monday as federal food assistance was cut by the Trump administration. One said strained resources might not last and made an appeal for donations.

Meanwhile, several statewide Republicans declined to call on President Donald Trump to speed delivery of the benefits after two federal judges on Friday ruled that Trump not only had the power to do so, but also the duty. 

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has been swept up in the five-week-old government shutdown. 

Republicans don’t have the votes to fund the government, and Democrats are demanding that they extend subsidies to buy health care on exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. 

Without the extension, the 24 million Americans who get such insurance will see their premiums more than double on average after Jan. 1, health-analysis nonprofit KFF reports.

In the midst of the partial shutdown, the Trump administration said it wouldn’t dip into reserves to keep the SNAP program funded as previous administrations had during earlier shutdowns.

At $186 a month, the average SNAP individual benefit for the 1.45 million Ohioans who receive them might not sound huge.

But when you consider that nearly 40% of recipients are under 18, and a family of three can’t make more than $34,645 a year to qualify, the loss of such assistance is potentially devastating.

The Trump administration had claimed that it couldn’t legally keep the program funded during the shutdown. 

But judges in two federal jurisdictions on Friday said that was false, and that it was legally bound to do so.

On Monday, the Trump administration said it would pay just half the normal benefit in November, and it’s unclear when those payments will go out.

The impact is already being felt at the food pantry at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, said Kathy Kelly-Long, its director. 

“We are crazy busy,” she said Monday. “We were serving 55 families a day in the spring. In August and September it went to 65 a day because food prices keep going up. This past week we’ve been averaging over 80 a day but our food supply hasn’t significantly increased.”

There have been state and local attempts to fill the gaps. 

Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday signed an executive order putting up $25 million in state money for food assistance, and Cuyahoga County Health and Human Services announced that corporate, philanthropic and government entities ponied up $600,000 to help the hungry there. 

But those amounts pale next to the hundreds of millions in monthly SNAP benefits the federal government had until now supplied. 

“For every meal of food we provide, SNAP can provide up to nine meals,” Matt Habash, President and CEO of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, said on Monday at a press conference in Columbus. 

“We will do everything we can, but we know we can’t make up the difference completely. Food banks are already stretched thin.”

He described the suffering the loss of benefits could cause. 

“We’re bracing for a level of need that we’ve never seen before,” Habash said. 

“Without SNAP, more kids are going to go to school without breakfast. Seniors or people with disabilities will be forced to make meals out of cheap staples like plain rice or pasta or nothing at all with no end in sight.” 

The Franklin County Health Department didn’t seem to have answers for its clients. 

“The federal government has notified the state of Ohio that due to the ongoing government shutdown, SNAP recipients may not receive their November benefits as normally scheduled,” its website said. 

“We are encouraging residents and families to plan ahead as best you can. We will share further information as the federal government provides updates.”

On Monday, volunteers at the pantry on Broad Street in Columbus surveyed people about what prompted them to come. 

“The majority said there was no SNAP and food was too expensive,” Kelly-Long said. 

Where the pantry normally served 10%-15% new families on a given morning, that number jumped to about 25% over the past week, she said.“That’s an indicator that things have changed,” Kelly-Long said.

“People who were doing OK now are not.”

She also clarified who Ohio’s SNAP recipients are. 

Some might try to dismiss the crisis by calling recipients freeloaders. 

But last year 62% of Ohio participants were in families with children, more than 43% were in families with older adults or members who are disabled, and more than 35% were in working families, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Amid the insecurity, Kelly-Long said neighbors have been stepping up.

“We have had numerous calls from people and organizations asking how can we help? Can we do a food drive? What can we do?” she said. “There’s been a lovely response.” 

She added that she’s conflicted about how to answer. 

The holidays are coming, and the food pantry doesn’t normally have things like stuffing or cornbread mix or canned sweet potatoes, and people will want them.

At the same time, the pantry always needs staples such as pasta, peanut butter, rice and canned tuna. 

“If people donate those things, that allows me to take my money and spend it on things that aren’t easy to donate like milk, meat and eggs,” Kelly-Long said.

The Mid-Ohio Food Collective said it was appealing to local governments and corporations for bulk donations. 

To individuals, it said, “We need you to donate and volunteer. Visit mofc.org to learn how. If you can’t give money, food, or time, then you can give your voice. Call us at the food bank or connect with us on social media to share your food assistance story. Together, we can make our voices heard.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, both Republicans, last week signed onto a Republican bill that would have funded SNAP during the shutdown. 

State Attorney General Dave Yost led 18 Republican attorneys general in writing a letter calling on Democrats to fund food assistance by abandoning the health-care subsidies.

That was all while Trump was still claiming that he couldn’t legally fund SNAP. 

Now that two federal judges have said he can and must, spokespeople for the Ohio Republicans won’t answer directly when asked if they would call on the president to do so.

Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry contributed to this report.

Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.