Need persists at Second Harvest Elyria food pantry

ELYRIA — Since demand for food pantries skyrocketed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ohio National Guard was called in to help make distributions, Elyria math teacher Molly Knight has been there. Knight distributed food outside Ely Stadium alongside National Guardsmen in 2020 and on Monday — more than six years later — she continued that same work alongside her current and former colleagues in Elyria Schools. Knight and about a dozen other Elyria faculty and staff volunteered in the Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio's monthly Elyria mobile food pantry, serving 220 families with crucial free groceries like fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen fish, cheese and nonperishables. "First of all, these are my kids and these are my kids' parents, and I need to be here for them," Knight, who teaches eighth grade at Westwood Middle School, said. "I understand what their struggles are, and I am happy to help. … The need has not diminished, our kids still need. Especially in the summertime, because when we are in school most of our students get breakfast and lunch. So we have to make sure they are still taken care of." Samantha Flores, director of program and partner services for Second Harvest, said that while need for food pantries has fallen from its historic peak during the height of the COVID pandemic, it remains far higher than it was prior to the pandemic. In 2019 Flores said that Second Harvest distributed roughly 7.5 million pounds of food, but in 2025 — more than five years after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine first issued pandemic "stay at home" orders — the food bank distributed roughly 11.4 million pounds across its service area in Lorain, Crawford, Erie and Huron counties. "We are far below where we were at the height of COVID, but we are still very much elevated from before," Flores said. One trend that Flores said Second Harvest was closely monitoring was the fact that even after so many years of elevated need, its food pantries are still generating steady numbers of first-time visitors. Flores said that of the 220 families that visited the Elyria pantry on Monday, 50 of them were visiting a Second Harvest-affiliated food bank for the first time. "It is so nice to be able to talk to neighbors and, you know, just by having a small conversation you can help a neighbor that is coming for the first time and might be nervous or not know exactly what to do," Flores said. "You have some familiar faces, which is great because it means that we can be a reliable resource for them. Anecdotally, we have been seeing a lot of folks who are settling in the area for the first time. That was a lot of the conversation today, just meeting people who are new to the area." Laurie Falcone, benefit coordinator for Elyria Schools, has worked the Elyria food pantry for years alongside Knight, and she said the experience of speaking to those who used the pantry was why she kept coming back. Falcone said she likes to direct traffic, so she gets to be one of the first to talk to visitors. "I try to introduce myself to everyone and you can usually tell when it is someone's first time, they sometimes seem uncomfortable or embarrassed," she said. "When I see someone like that, I always say 'I am so glad you came today, we are so happy to see you,' or I thank them for helping us give out all our food. You can't die of embarrassment, but you can die if you don't have enough to eat." Second Harvest's Elyria food pantries are held on the final Monday of the month, and the next distribution will be held on Aug. 31. Check secondharvestfoodbank.org or the Second Harvest Facebook page for monthly mobile pantry schedules. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.