In the wake of Trump's funding cuts, Ohio grapples with a food crisis
World
Trump's spending bill called for $300 billion in cuts to food benefits for low income people
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – On a recent morning, volunteers at the Mid-Ohio Food Collective moved about the warehouse, preparing orders for customers and food banks across the region. The state’s largest food bank is urgently working to shore up supplies amid shrinking federal support, including deep funding cuts under President Donald Trump.
Shannon Follins is a college student and single mother of three, including 3-year-old twins. One is autistic; he hasn’t found his words yet. Until recently, Follins worked third shift at Waffle House for $5.25 an hour, and now she's studying for a degree in social services when she’s not attending to her children. Follins visits the Mid-Ohio Collective’s pantries weekly to help make ends meet.
“I’m praying like the budget don’t get cut because I don’t think nobody realize how many families are going to be affected. And it’s not just mine,” said Follins.
Her family brings groceries when they can, but the pantry at Broad Street Presbyterian, stocked by Mid-Ohio, helps her make meals that feel like more than survival.
Chicken alfredo with broccoli was on the menu during an evening when Reuters visited with her at home, some of the ingredients sourced from a nearby Mid-Ohio pantry. “I might not have a meal that I want to have or a meal that we will like to have,” said Follins of their meal options on certain days. “But if we have some macaroni, then macaroni it is. So, just having that as a backup is good because I know we all got something to eat.”
Standing inside a busy central warehouse in Columbus, Mid-Ohio Food Collective President and CEO Matt Habash, 68, aims to reduce the stigma associated with people using their services.
“We want them to feel welcome coming. We want them to come and get fresh foods,” said Habash, explaining that he’s directed their markets across the region to be open at night and on weekends.
The Mid-Ohio Food Collective was born out of church basements and borrowed trucks nearly a half-century ago when factory closures left more families hungry. It’s now the state’s largest food bank, feeding more than 35,000 Ohio families a week. It supplies more than 600 food pantries, soup kitchens, children and senior feeding sites, after-school programmes and other partner agencies.
When Trump returned to office in January, Mid-Ohio Food Collective was already slammed. Pantry visits across its 20 counties hit 1.8 million last year, nearly double pre-COVID levels, and are continuing to grow this year. The biggest surge came from working people whose paychecks no longer stretch far enough due to pandemic-era inflation under Joe Biden's presidency, staff said.
In March, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled the pandemic-era Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) programme, which funded about $500 million annually for food banks; and froze about $500 million in funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Programme (TEFAP), one of the agency’s core nutrition programmes that supplies food to states to pass on to food banks for free.
Most of the food Mid-Ohio distributes is donated, but donations alone can’t stock a steady pantry. Its current $11.1 million purchasing budget, built from federal, state and private dollars, helps fill the gaps. The March cuts wiped out about 22% of Mid-Ohio’s buying power for next fiscal year – funds and food staff are trying to replace.
At home with Follins and her trio of young children, reading books and playing games while sharing snacks sourced from the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, she reflected on the importance of keeping her kids nourished.
“Food is in the middle. You can’t survive without,” Follins said.
Last month, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed Trump's tax and spending bill. It called for $300 billion in cuts to food benefits for low income people under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP), which fed nearly 1.4 million Ohioans in January, according to the latest state data.
If the cuts survive the Senate and are passed into law, it would cost Ohio at least $475 million annually in state funding to maintain current SNAP benefits, plus at least $70 million for administrative programme costs, said Cleveland-based The Center for Community Solutions, an independent, nonpartisan policy research group.
