Second Harvest hopes to provide nearly 4 million meals through Harvest for Hunger

After a year of soaring needs and in the face of future funding uncertainty, Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio hopes its Harvest for Hunger campaign can raise enough donations to provide nearly 4 million meals to local families. On Wednesday, Second Harvest announced it would hold its annual Harvest for Hunger Kick-Off on Feb. 26 from 4 to 6 p.m. at its headquarters at 5510 Baumhart Road in Lorain, and the unofficial beginning of the campaign would be March 1. The event is open to the public. Second Harvest supplies food banks and meal distribution networks in Crawford, Erie, Huron and Lorain counties, and the Harvest for Hunger drive is the key fundraising campaign and donation drive of the nonprofit every year. Julie Chase-Morefield, president and CEO of Second Harvest, said that in 2026, the organization's goal is to bring in enough donations of food and money to provide 3.9 million meals at the 125 food banks, hot meal programs and shelters Second Harvest serves, 88 of which are in Lorain County. The theme of this year's drive is "100 percent local, 100 percent impact," emphasizing that all donations to the drive will be used to serve the communities in which they are made. "No matter where you are, if you are a part of this campaign and you are helping to raise funds, if you are down in Crawford County in Bucyrus and it is through the Bucyrus Rotary Club, it is staying in Bucyrus," Chase-Morefield said. "If it is in Elyria, it is staying in Elyria. These are local donations, you are going to have that impact on your neighbors, on what you are seeing, and I think that is really important." Rotary District 6600, which serves north central and northwest Ohio, and its 13 constituent member Rotary Clubs in the Second Harvest service area are the honorary champions of this year's drive. Pam Brumbaugh, district governor of Rotary District 6600, said that every member organization and hundreds of individual Rotarians in the district had long participated in food distribution efforts, so the partnership with Second Harvest was a natural one. Several years ago, Rotary Clubs within the Second Harvest service area had raised money to provide the nonprofit with a refrigerated food truck to help with its work. "It made sense for us to come together," Brumbaugh said. "Certainly we know for Lorain County, the Harvest for Hunger Campaign will help them restock shelves in more than 60 community food pantries and with their hot meal programs, so we are glad to help with that. Our clubs really see firsthand how many of our neighbors rely on those resources to get them through the week or through the month. And we know that kids can't thrive and do well in school if they don't have food in their bellies." Chase-Morefield said that the need for replenishing Second Harvest's supplies is great every year, but was exacerbated by the federal government shutdown in November and the ensuing delay in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. In preparation for the delay and massive increase in need, Chase-Morefield said that Second Harvest had purchased more than $700,000 worth of food to keep its stock strong, but it now needs to raise that money back to pay for future food assistance. Prior to the SNAP disruption, federal cuts to food assistance funding had already hit Second Harvest hard, including a loss of 148,000 pounds of food due to USDA cuts last March. "That really saved us through the holidays, so our food inventory now is still good and we are able to meet the needs of our programs," she said. "Obviously that is a lot of money we were not expecting to spend, but it was the right thing to do. … That is really why this campaign is so important, because it allows us to keep those inventories high." The number of people relying on community food assistance has skyrocketed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and for years after. Chase-Morefield said the need seems to have leveled off this year, but it remains well beyond what it was prior to the pandemic. Jen Allred, District 6600 Public Image chair and a member of the Vermilion Rotary Club, is one of the Rotarians who knows firsthand how critical food banks are to their local community. Allred is also the executive director of Grace Community Kitchen in Vermilion, and she said she has seen herself how serious the need is for food items is and the role Second Harvest plays in answering that need. "Rotarians from Vermilion go to this church where we make hot meals twice a month, and a lot of them probably don't even realize the connection back to Second Harvest," Allred said. "Second Harvest provides about 80 percent of the food that we end up preparing for the community, so this is an opportunity to educate them on the involvement of Second Harvest. … It is not just an opportunity to raise awareness, but also raise more funds through passions that are already existing and can just be amplified through Harvest for Hunger and this partnership between the Rotary and Second Harvest." Both Allred and Chase-Morefield said that some of the highest needs were for protein and dairy, and that money raised through the drive would be used to fill those gaps. Some of the key donation sources for the Harvest for Hunger are the Giant Eagle, Heinen's and Buehler's Fresh Foods grocery stores and GetGo gas stations, which will support the drive through their Check Out Hunger program at cash registers in their stores. Chase-Morefield said that while the drive unofficially begins on March 1, Giant Eagle will begin collecting donations today and accept them through May 20. Donations of cash and nonperishable food items are accepted for the drive, and local media, businesses, community organizations and civic clubs across the area also run collection drives to support Second Harvest. Harvest for Hunger is a collaboration between Second Harvest of North Central Ohio, the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, Greater Cleveland Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to raise money for food banks every year. This is the 35th year of the drive, which serves 21 counties across Northern Ohio. For more information on Harvest for Hunger in Lorain County, visit secondharvestfoodbank.org/take-action/events/harvest-for-hunger. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.