DaytonDailyNews.com

Even before the worst of the current economic earthquake hit the nation, poverty was growing at an alarming rate in Ohio communities, newly released U.S. Census data show.

Of the 83 large to midsize cities in Ohio, only four have escaped an increase in poverty this decade, according to American Community Survey data released last week. While increased poverty in the large cities has been well documented, the new data collected during a three-year period from 2005 through 2007 show poverty has increased even in more affluent suburbs.

Centerville and Kettering, for example, show large proportional increases in their poverty rates. Centerville's poverty rate almost doubled from 4.1 percent in 1999 to 7.8 percent in the three-year survey period. Kettering's poverty rate increased by 78 percent, from 4.6 percent to 8.3 percent during the period.

And up north in Troy, the poverty rate increased even more, up almost 92 percent from 8.2 percent to 15.8 percent during the three-year period from which the Census data was compiled.

The increases came as no surprise to officials and volunteers in the cities' school systems, who have seen similar increases in the number of students eligible for free and reduced lunch programs.

In response to the problem, volunteers have been pitching in. Weekend food programs for needy students have sprouted up in both Kettering and Centerville to make sure kids aren't going hungry.

Karen Parks helped create the Food2Go program this year at Living Hope Church in Centerville. The program started out taking donations from congregation members and packaging them for 36 students in two Centerville schools. The program is gaining momentum — including partners in two other churches — but Parks said it's been hard getting folks to recognize the problem.

"It was very difficult for people to believe in the community of Centerville and Washington Twp. that hunger exists among our children," she said.