According to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Foodbank Association, the state’s 12 food banks served a record number of Ohioans between July 1 and Sept. 30 — 875,885 households containing 2,471,840 people — since she started tracking data in 1997.
“This represents a 10 percent increase in the number of people served from the previous quarter,” Hamler-Fugitt said.
Riley said while it is too early to track the exact extent of the cuts that started Nov. 1, many are worried about new requirements for food stamp eligibility scheduled for Jan. 1. Those would require “able-bodied” recipients work or volunteer a certain hours a month to retain their eligibility.
The cuts came as part of the battle over the Farm Bill with Republicans contending the $80 billion a year food stamp program was out of control. They pointed to the program’s recent growth during a period when the unemployment rate was falling and the economy was pulling out of the recession. Democrats claimed the cuts would force millions into poverty.
“With fewer resources, the system is not equipped to handle even more people coming for food support,” Riley said.
“Hunger is already a crisis in our community,” said David Bohardt, executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Dayton District Council. “The most recent decision by Congress to slash the food stamp program only makes it worse.”
The St. Vincent food pantry distributes food twice a month, once around the start of the month and once around the end of the month. The end of the month serves the most families — between 375 and 400 — as many of the families’ monthly food stamp allotment almost has been spent, according to Kris Davidson, director of the pantry.
“This month we served 411 households in the first distribution. I’m projecting that we will serve 500 households for the second distribution, and we’ve never had 500 households,” she said.
The food pantry saw a sharp increase in families last month. “They told me they knew it (the cuts) was coming so they were stocking up. This month, everybody was talking about the cuts,” Davidson said.
In October, the food pantry distributed more than 25,000 meals to 721 households, totaling 2,751 people.
Donna Wilkerson, coordinator of the First Place Food Pantry, an outreach of the First Methodist Church in Troy, said she has seen an increase in new families needing assistance. “Last week, we had 17 new families,” she said. And the size of the families is increasing as economic pressures force extended families and friends to live together.
“Yesterday we saw 46 families in a two-hour period. It used to be we’d see between 25 to 32 families,” she said Thursday.
Melodie Bennett, executive director of the House of Bread that serves a hot lunch 365 days a year, said not only is she seeing more guests showing up for lunch, she is getting more requests for help with the basics of shelter, medical care, transportation and medical care.
“That’s more significant because it tells me there is a trend of more people living below the poverty level and more people at risk of homelessness. The requests are for the basic, basic needs,” she said.
In fiscal year 2011-2012, The Food Bank distributed 5.7 million pounds of food to pantries, food kitchens and other outreach groups the area. That increased 28 percent to 7.2 million pounds — the equivalent of 6 million meals — in fiscal year 2012-2013 that ended June 30, according to Riley.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, 30 percent of the recipient households work. Another 54 percent of recipients are children (45 percent) or the elderly (9 percent).
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