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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Alabama is one of 14 states opting out of the 2024 summer electronic benefit program.

As summer rolls around, there will be no programs in place to help low-income families with grocery costs.

LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate for the group Alabama Arise, said as a result, more than 500,000 children who usually receive free or reduced lunch could go without meals. She noted while summer feeding programs will be available, they will not reach everyone in need.

"Ninety-four percent of Alabama children who rely on free and reduced-price meals won't have access to them over the summer," Clifford Wood reported. "That means that only 6% of the children who rely on those meals during the school year are going to be fed through summer feeding programs."

Clifford Wood warned limited hours, transportation and strict program rules will hinder many families from benefiting from such vital programs. The Alabama Legislature did not allocate the necessary $15 million for the program by the end of the last session. However, Clifford Wood noted there is a chance the program will be funded in the summer of 2025.

As legislators focus on next year's budgets, Clifford Wood stressed the need for funding next summer's EBT program. She pointed out Alabama Arise is calling for lawmakers to allocate funds from the Education Trust Fund to combat child hunger, affecting one in four children in the state.

"This is a program that's been tested for 13 years," Clifford Wood emphasized. "It's had three rigorous evaluation periods, and it was shown to improve the diet of children and decrease children's food hardship by a third."

Clifford Wood believes prioritizing children's needs and addressing food insecurity is a form of preventive care and serves as an early investment in the state's overall wellness.

The Food Research and Action Center said funding the e-benefits program would also benefit the economy - adding anywhere from $98 million to $117 million. The Alabama Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee is expected to vote on the budget next week.

California's program helping low-income families buy fresh fruit and vegetables is on the chopping block and health care advocates are asking legislators to save the Market Match program.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed cutting most of the program's $35 million budget to help close the state's budget shortfall.

Sophia Vaccaro, a participant in Market Match from Echo Park, said she depends on Market Match in more ways than one.

"It helps people being able to stretch their budget further," Vaccaro explained. "Then, I think it helps the community, in that it creates a sense of camaraderie at the farmers' market and makes people more invested in the community itself."

The program matches every dollar CalFresh customers spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market up to between $10 and $20 per day. It is active at 294 sites across the state and is partially paid for through federal matching funds.

Dr. John Maa, surgeon at Marin Health Medical Center and board member of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the American Heart Association, said Market Match promotes healthy eating and boosts the local farm economy.

"An improved diet really will have long-term meaningful impacts on health, and also reduce health care costs," Maa explained. "It really helps to sustain the growers and the merchants. I guess it's a win-win-win."

Siu Han Cheung, outreach coordinator for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation and board member of the Heart of the City Farmers' Market, argued the program is vital to residents across the state.

"If the Market Match will be cut, that is terrible," Cheung stressed. "That means they have less money to buy their food. So, Market Match is very important for the low-income families and the seniors."

Legislators and the governor are working toward the May budget revisions, and must pass a balanced budget by June 15.

South Dakotans face high prices at the grocery store and some are working to ease the burden.

A new report from the Federal Trade Commission finds some grocery retailers used the supply-chain disruptions of the pandemic to raise prices and collect bigger profits, even after supply chains regulated.

One South Dakota group is trying to reduce sticker shock by targeting the state sales tax on groceries. Dakotans for Health is sponsoring a citizens ballot initiative to repeal the 4.2 % tax.

Rick Weiland, co-founder of the group, said lower food bills would make a meaningful difference for some.

"People of modest means, or low income hardworking families, disproportionately spend upwards of 30% on food," Weiland pointed out. "This is going to be helpful."

South Dakota is one of only two states in the country to apply its full state sales tax rate to groceries with no exemptions, Mississippi being the other. More than 9% of South Dakotans are considered food insecure, meaning they do not always have access to enough healthy food.

The grocery tax has been a popular topic among state legislators in recent years. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem even campaigned on the promise to repeal it. Critics have said proposing a tax cut without a way to finance it is irresponsible.

Weiland pointed out Gov. Noem had a formula spelled out when she brought forward her bill in 2023, which was voted down.

"She had no problem defending her position in front of the Legislature, in terms of how much revenue the state was going to lose and where they could make it up," Weiland recounted.

The initiative needs about 17,500 signatures by next month to appear on the November ballot.