LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The Ohio Association of Foodbanks has major concerns with the Ohio Senate's version of the state budget. Specifically the cut in funding that would provide more food to those in need.
The association requested 50 million dollars to meet the needs of the growing number of people requesting help to feed their families. Locally, the West Ohio Food Bank saw an increase in first-time visitors to their facility as extra SNAP benefits stopped. In May, they served over 16,000 clients with more than 3,000 of them being new to the food-banking network.
"It's just continuing as the price of food is up and inflation is still up, our economy is still not where we would like it to be. So if these cuts happen that's just going to put a bigger strain on us because those numbers just continue to go up each month," explained Tommie Harner, executive director of the West Ohio Food Bank.
The food bank depends on that state funding to purchase food to disperse to individuals and local food pantries. The governor designated 24 and a half million dollars for emergency food programs. The House added 15 million and the Senate then cut those extra dollars. Food bank leaders are asking that legislators rethink this decision as they can't run on donations alone.
"So, while we greatly appreciate those donations and we still need them we need that larger scale that we can provide to our partner agencies who are seeing also hundreds of clients coming through their doors," added Harner.
The State of Ohio has 12 regional food banks with 3,600 local faith-based and community organizations including the West Ohio Food Bank serving an 11-county area in our region.
You can read the OAFB Press Statement below:
