Shannon, a social worker at Miami County Health Partners, and Alisha Barton of the Ohio State University Extension Service in Miami County and Food Insecurity Alliance adviser, have been spreading the word of coming changes, including in a recent discussion with the Miami County commissioners.
The mass distributions actually started before the arrival of COVID-19, Shannon said. That is because food banks in summer 2019 were given more food than normal for distribution due to national trade policy changes. To accommodate the distribution, the centralized mass distribution was organized.
The system being used for distributing that food was utilized when more demand for food was seen and more food was made available in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, Shannon said.
The demand that had been around 300 households monthly increased to up to 1,300 households. Because of that demand, the National Guard was called up to help local organizations across the state with distribution.
The assistance from the National Guard will end June 30, and the larger amounts of food will not be coming through the Shared Harvest Food Bank to the county, Shannon said.
Those needing assistance will be encouraged to visit the local food pantries across the county.
“We have great pantries in Miami County so we do not need to take away from what they are doing,” Barton said.
Shannon noted that while many food pantries lost volunteers during the pandemic, many are returning to their volunteer roles.
The food insecurity alliance was formed in late 2018 to increase education, awareness and availability of healthy food choices to the residents of the county. The alliance was created when people recognized a lot of individual agencies were working to meet people’s food needs but no coordinated effort existed.
That changed with an effort to bring those providing food together to coordinate resources and assist each other where possible.
“The idea was, ‘What can we do together to make this even better?’” Shannon said.
Among the initial efforts was sharing information between agencies with extra resources that could be used by others. For example, overstock items from Meijer Distribution in Tipp City that went to that community’s Needy Basket program also were shared with other agencies when the overstock was more than the local program could distribute.
The alliance’s newer efforts include a food insecurity garden being developed on the grounds of the Health Partners Free Clinic between Troy and Piqua. A part-time garden coordinator was hired recently with foundation funding.
Other sources of food include the new Community Food Truck program started by Maiya Dilbone, a Troy Christian High School graduate. The alliance is connecting Dilbone with those who can assist in keeping those miniature food trucks stocked, Shannon said.
The alliance also is working with the food bank and volunteers on continuing a door to door distribution at a senior housing complex in Troy, Barton said.
Miami County Commission President Greg Simmons said the county possibly could provide some funding toward alliance efforts when it decides how to spend the county share of the American Rescue Plan Act money.
For more information about the alliance, contact Shannon, at aimeeshannon@healthpartnersclinic.org or Barton at barton345@osu.edu
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
About the Author