Second Harvest giving away 'everything that we have' as hunger continues to rise

LORAIN — The rising costs of groceries, gas and rent, combined with cuts in government support, are "a perfect storm" for hunger, Susan Bartosch said. Second Harvest Food Bank, where she is vice president of external affairs, is struggling to keep up with a surge of demand from hard-hit Lorain County families going into the summer months. "We're just realizing we're cutting it really close," she said. "Everything that we have, we're giving it away." Second Harvest hasn't had to start rationing food like other food banks across the state — at least not yet, Bartosch said. But at drive-thru food pantries, it has started running thin on certain items for the last few cars in line, she said. The big problem is that donations flowing into the nonprofit's Baumhart Road warehouse have slowed by 30 percent. Usually, a huge portion of that food comes from big-box retailers such as Giant Eagle, Meijer and Walmart. Bartosch said those companies are staggering from supply chain issues and just don't have much spare stock. Similar hardships and shortfalls are being seen across the state, according to the Ohio Association of Food Banks. "We desperately need more help," said its director, Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, in a letter Tuesday to Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Legislature. "Many food banks are seeing spikes in need comparable to or higher than in the early weeks of the pandemic. Some of our food banks are rationing food, and more will need to start doing so without immediate action." The association, which includes Second Harvest in Lorain, is asking for $50 million in emergency funding for food assistance, as well as $133 million to prepare against the recession many economists are forecasting. Ohio's food banks already are seeing more families with children ask for help putting food on the table, the association said. Many made it through the pandemic on their own, but now are struggling with inflation. That's especially true of seniors and people with disabilities who are on fixed incomes. They're being pummeled by the rising cost of living. So are people who are active in the workforce: "Working adults are earning the same wages but paying $5 per gallon or more for fuel to get to work and facing an 11.2 percent increase in the cost of groceries so far this year," Hamler-Fugitt said. Food banks in Ohio have been calling for an investment of American Rescue Plan funding for months without success. Instead, state lawmakers moved $809 million in federal relief into the capital budget before recessing for the summer. It was done without a public hearing. That leaves $1.9 billion in American Rescue Plan state recovery funds and millions in unspent Ohio Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds, the Ohio Association of Food Banks said. There's another $7.4 billion in the state's rainy-day fund and unspent budget carryover, according to a Pew Research analysis. At the same time, food banks are seeing huge reductions in the amount of food they are receiving from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hundreds of loads from the federal government have been canceled due to bidding issues, price increases, lack of product availability and higher transportation costs, the association said. Bartosch said the amount of food Second Harvest has received through the USDA has dropped by 54 percent since the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, "and we have really no indication that's going to change in the next fiscal year." A couple of years ago, an embargo on food exports to China left farmers sitting with an overstock and no buyers. The USDA stepped in to pick up the surplus, sending the food to food banks. Now the tables have turned. Russia's war against Ukraine — a big supplier of fertilizer and seed — has hurt American farmers, sending the price of growing food sky high. As a result, Second Harvest has seen its prices to buy various types of food rise anywhere from 6 percent to 16 percent over the past year, Bartosch said. Eggs are a perfect example — they've historically been a low-cost, readily available source of protein. But the price of a dozen eggs has doubled from around $1.50 last year to $3 now, in part due to an avian flu outbreak that's killed almost 40 million chickens and turkeys nationwide. The United States is also still dealing with food factory shutdowns due to COVID-19, distribution problems and outrageous shipping costs, Bartosch said. In the meantime, expanded federal Child Tax Credit payments, which were being fronted monthly in larger sums, have rolled back to their pre-pandemic levels, and school lunches this fall will no longer be free to all students. Given steadily rising demand, Second Harvest could scale up food distributions to match, cramming mall or college parking lots with long rows of cars, she said. But that would make little difference if there isn't enough food to hand out. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.