By Leah Shepard / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

At Heart Reach Neighborhood Ministries in Youngstown, chief program officer April Alexander has seen countless people struggle to feed their families. According to Feeding America, Mahoning County, where Youngstown is located, had a food insecurity rate of 13.4% in 2021, meaning 30,670 people were without "access, at times, to enough food for a healthy, active life." And Alexander said the problem seems to be getting worse.

"Families can call and schedule and come to get a food box any time," she said. "And so with the decrease in SNAP benefits, coupled with the increase in food costs, we have seen a significant increase in the number of families who are seeking food assistance from us. And I'm hearing that from some of our partner agencies as well."

SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is a federal program that provides monthly financial assistance to low-income families to buy food. In March, pandemic-era funding to SNAP was cut in 35 states, including Ohio. This effectively lowered the amount of food families on SNAP could afford by an average of about $90 per person per month.

According to the most recent study conducted by the USDA in 2020, 10.5% of the U.S. population live with food insecurity. More than one million people live with food insecurity in Ohio. Experts say food insecurity is growing because of cuts in funding to SNAP benefits and rising food prices.

In April, the Ohio Association of Food Banks surveyed 2,000 individuals who use local food banks to determine the reasons for their food insecurity. Three out of four households receiving SNAP benefits ran out within the first two weeks of the month since the cutbacks, said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, who has served as director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks since 2001.

"It's disproportionately hit seniors and households with children the hardest," she said.

Food prices were also a factor.

"Eight in 10 of the respondents said they were seeking emergency food because of higher overall food costs," she said.

Hamler-Fugitt said the recent surge in food prices combined with the reduction in SNAP benefits are also affecting food banks all over the state.

"We have been struggling for quite some time," she said. "We've been dealing with the same thing that the consumers that we serve are dealing with, which is just higher food costs, inflation. Donations are down significantly while we're spending more to purchase food to try to help our customers have food. We're lightening the bags, providing fewer meals than we've done in the past because there's not enough food."

Pat Bebo, registered dietician and assistant director of an extension of Ohio State University's College of Family and Consumer Sciences, said food deserts can be in the city or in rural areas.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food deserts are places with both low incomes and low access to healthy, affordable food.

"You might have food in a food desert, but it might not be the food that will sustain life and prevent chronic disease," Bebo said. "It might be higher fat, higher sugar. Food of low nutritional quality that may also cost a lot more. And the healthier foods, let's say just milk, a gallon of milk or eggs, might cost more in these food deserts might cost more because there is such a limited availability."

Bebo said the study of food deserts is relatively new, with the USDA only beginning research in the 1980s. It's not that food deserts didn't exist in the past, she said, but they may have become more obvious in recent years. She expects the ending of pandemic-era changes for those receiving food benefits to have a negative effect on their lives.

"Think of any one of us that lost $400 a month out of our food budget," she said "That's going to have a huge impact. There's lots of things that the pandemic did, and we did good things during the pandemic, but now they're being rolled back."

Bebo cited the pandemic policy that no longer required students to fill out an application for free and reduced school meals. Now, she said, that went away.

"People got out of the habit of submitting the application," she said. "And so there was a hard time getting up to that habit of submitting that application so that their kids could access free and reduced priced meals."

Bebo said those on SNAP benefits or those not on benefits at all "just don't have the money" to buy food. Bebo also cited the lack of public transportation as a reason many people face food insecurity.

"Whether you're talking mid-sized communities, inner cities. Look at Columbus," Bebo, a resident of Westerville, Ohio, said. "If I didn't have a car, I couldn't get to a grocery store because there's no buses."

Treva Williams, an extension educator with Family and Consumer Sciences at Ohio State University, works in food safety and preservation in Southern Ohio. Williams, who has worked in Scioto County for 27 years, said there is little access to chain grocery stores outside of Portsmouth, Scioto County's largest city. Many people must go to discount stores for food, and those stores sell mostly canned and packaged food.

"The problem there isn't so much that the food doesn't exist," Williams said. "There is no public transportation system. So, while the food may be there, getting to the food can sometimes be the bigger issue. Particularly when you don't have a vehicle."

In Youngstown, Alexander said transportation also poses a barrier to access for many people her organization serves.

"While we have public transportation, families are still limited with how much they can then bring home," she said. "So, if mom is trying to care for a few children and then maybe she catches the bus to Walmart or even to Save-A-Lot, whatever is closest to her, there is still that challenge of only carrying enough that she can manage."

Alexander said that while stores like Dollar General have increased access to frozen and processed food, this still leaves families without access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

"A lot of times, in trying to manage a budget, they are choosing foods that are lower in cost but higher in sodium and some of the other, less desirable nutrients, if I can even call them that," Alexander said. "So that's a challenge."

Alexander said people affected by food insecurity face many hidden obstacles.

"I wish people really understood what it is to live in poverty, and the barriers that people face," she said. "That this is not a matter of people being lazy, that this is not a matter of people not caring enough for their families. It is a matter of severe barriers. Things like I mentioned: transportation, lack of transportation, generational poverty."

Alexander said that what she believes is the key to change is connection between the people living in poverty and people making policy.

"There needs to be some kind of bridge," she said. "Between those who are struggling with making ends meet, meeting poverty guidelines, yet working. Some bridge between hearing their stories and getting their actual stories out to those who are making decisions."

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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North Dakota is expected to rejoin the debate over whether all school children, regardless of their family income, should have access to no-cost meals.

Universal lunch programs have been adopted by nearly 10 states, including neighboring Minnesota. A broad coalition of organizations gathered Thursday to push for adding North Dakota to the list. The federal government funds free or reduced-cost meals to income-eligible students. States with universal policies cover the remaining expenses so all kids eat free.

Michelle Wagner, child nutrition director for Bismarck Public Schools and legislative chair for the North Dakota School Nutrition Association, said working in a school cafeteria has opened her eyes about the need.

"As a food service director, we see firsthand that many of these students depend on school meals as their primary source of nutrition," Wagner explained.

The coalition said one in three North Dakota children relies on the Great Plains Food Bank, and many do not meet school meal eligibility requirements. North Dakota lawmakers temporarily boosted meal eligibility last session but advocates said wider permanent access is needed. A likely bill sponsor said there appears to be bipartisan support but expects pushback over cost concerns, even with a budget surplus.

Coalition members argued this type of move works as a tax cut, estimating North Dakota families would save more than $850 per child each year.

Robin Nelson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of the Red River Valley, said by putting kids in a better position to learn, the state would also be able to address workforce shortages down the road.

"If I were a company that was trying to recruit employees, I would use this for anybody to move to the state," Nelson suggested.

Statewide polling in North Dakota has shown strong public support for expanded school meals. In Minnesota, policy observers said the state's program, approved in 2023, is proving to be popular but demand has been strong, elevating costs. Those behind North Dakota's effort said they hope lawmakers get a full scope of what is needed when they begin debating the issue.


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Congressional efforts to avoid a government shutdown could extend funding for SNAP, the program formerly known as food stamps. And if the continuing resolution introduced in the U.S. House this week is passed, SNAP participants won't go hungry if they fall victim to electronic theft.

Carmen Mooradian, senior public policy manager with Hunger Free Colorado, said the resolution extends protections from practices - such as skimming data from EBT cards, which function like debit cards - through September of 2028.

"This is when a device is placed on a point-of-sale terminal, and it's used to take that account information, and to clone it into a new card, that is then used to drain that person's account," Mooradian said.

Electronic theft protections were set to expire this Friday. Nearly one in five families with children in Colorado have gone without food because they can't afford it, and advocates are urging lawmakers to improve emergency food assistance programs by removing barriers such as additional work requirements; getting more eligible people enrolled; allowing participants to make their own healthy food choices; and increasing benefit levels to keep up with rising costs.

The minimum SNAP benefit is currently $23 per month, and the average SNAP benefit is $6 a day. Mooradian said lessons learned during the COVID public-health emergency show what's possible when benefits are increased.

"It can actually protect against food insecurity. People have access to healthier foods, because they can afford healthier foods," Mooradian added. "So, we need to make sure that we are moving toward more adequate benefits. "

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-CO, has introduced a bill that would allow people with disabilities or working multiple jobs to use SNAP to buy hot prepared foods at grocery stores. Mooradian said it's also important for lawmakers to remove additional work and other requirements for the 40% of community college students experiencing hunger.

"There are a lot of restrictions on student eligibility right now that make it harder for students to access this program. When students aren't focusing on having to feed themselves, they are actually able to do better in school," Mooradian added.

Several federal programs may face budget cuts as the new administration proposes sweeping actions to reduce the federal debt.

Advocates for the safety-net programs in Tennessee said cuts would jeopardize food access, health insurance and essential services for tens of thousands of people.

Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy at the Tennessee Justice Center, said key decisions early next year will significantly affect funding for Medicaid, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. She pointed out on average, about 750,000 Tennesseans per month receive SNAP benefits.

"Tennesseans will have less access to health care and to food," Anderson projected. "Programs that are in place now that offer health care to Tennesseans will become more limited - and the same with the SNAP program, will become more limited."

The Tennessee Justice Center hosts a free webinar today at 11:30 a.m. to discuss how groups across the country are organizing responses to potential cuts and their impacts on communities. More than 1.4 million Tennesseans are enrolled in Medicaid.

Anderson noted another federal program providing summer meals to hundreds of thousands of Tennessee children will expire unless Gov. Bill Lee renews it by Jan. 1, which he has indicated he does not plan to do.

The Summer EBT program provides families with $40 a month during the summer, for extra help paying for food when kids are out of school.

"DHS reported to USDA that nearly 700,000 children participated this past summer," Anderson emphasized. "Tennessee has been very, very successful in rolling out the program, and we're one of the only southeast states last year that participated."

Anderson stressed advocates for maintaining Summer EBT have delivered more than 2,200 signatures on petitions to the governor's office. She added more than $78 million in Summer EBT benefits also boost the local economy through grocery store spending.


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