COLUMBUS, Ohio - Hundreds of helping hands could be lost in Ohio. A budget bill on Capitol Hill would cut funding for people working mostly as volunteers, helping those who need help the most. A House Committee proposes eliminating programs such as AmeriCorps and VISTA, that are administered by the Corporation for National Community Services. Such programs include some 80,000 volunteers.

More than 200 of these workers are deployed by the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, where executive director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt says they are the "boots on the ground."

"These individuals work on the front line every day, feeding their hungry friends and neighbors, helping to rebuild communities and provide opportunities for individuals who are often afflicted with unemployment, poverty and homelessness."

Besides their work with growing numbers of food bank clients, Hamler-Fugitt says, AmeriCorps and VISTA members help feed tens of thousands of children in summer food and backpack food programs. They also help low-income Ohioans complete their tax returns free of charge.

AmeriCorps is one of the largest employers of 18-to-24-year-olds in the country, paying them a small stipend for social service work. Hamler-Fugitt believes its funding should be significantly increased, because it provides jobs that are desperately needed in Ohio and the rest of the country.

"Our greatest fear is that many of these young people who are committed in serving in these volunteer capacities for a very modest stipend will be forced not only to leave our state, but potentially our country."

The draft of the 2012 Labor, Health and Human Services budget bill that includes the cut will get subcommittee scrutiny before it reaches the full House.


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Advocates for children say up to 7,000 students in New Hampshire public schools are going hungry following the rejection of a federal program for low-income students by Gov. Chris Sununu.

A bipartisan group of state senators recently failed to convince the governor to continue a COVID-era program ensuring children of families enrolled in Medicaid were automatically eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school.

Laura Milken, executive director of New Hampshire Hunger Solutions, said there is ample research showing children learn more when they are fed.

"They have stronger attendance, and they have stronger graduation rates and better long-term health outcomes," Milken outlined.

Sununu said legislative approval was needed to take part in the Medicaid data-sharing program, and although she disagrees with his assessment, Milken noted her organization will work to get it, and potentially improve New Hampshire's state ranking in school breakfast participation, which is currently 47th.

Child advocates noted the government averted a national crisis by providing free meals to an additional 10 million children throughout the pandemic. But Congress allowed the policy to expire, ending a vital source of nutrition for America's low-income students.

Milken argued the Medicaid pilot program would help feed more hungry students and save schools money.

"They don't have to process as many school meal applications," Milken pointed out. "It reduces school meal enrollment certification errors. It reduces unpaid student meal debt and increases state and federal funding."

Milken added older students especially would rather go hungry than be recognized as needing financial aid, often telling their parents not to apply. She stressed the Medicaid data-sharing program could reduce the stigma by having students' meal cards already set at the free or reduced rate before they arrive in the cafeteria.

By Jala Forest / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan Reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration

Nearly 40% of college students at four-year universities are affected by food insecurity, according to a survey conducted in 2020 by Temple University's Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.

The rates of college food insecurity have increased by 30% over the last decade, according to a study by the American Public Health Association.

Over that same period, the number of food pantries on college campuses has increased nearly eightfold. According to the College & University Food Bank Alliance, there are food pantries on over 700 college campuses across the United States, compared to just 88 in 2012.

But advocates say college students need more support.

"There is a system in place in this country for low-income kids," said Hope Lane-Gavin, a health equity fellow at the Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions. "There's free and reduced lunch, for example, and there's other TANF benefits." TANF is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a cash assistance program that directs payments to families with children in order to provide care for the children in the household.

"There's all sorts of support for kids," Lane-Gavin added - "but college students aren't viewed as kids."

Low-income students, students of color and international students most affected by food insecurity

Almost 60% of Black students and 50% of Latinx students experience food insecurity compared to 30% of their non-hispanic white peers, according to a study conducted by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab. This study also found that 46% of students who are Pell Grant recipients experience food insecurity.

"Unfortunately, the same students that have intersecting identities... [are] the same students that are unfortunately having challenges [in] likely the rest of their life," Lane-Gavin said.

Students suffering from food insecurity are more likely to fall behind in class, leading to their academic performance, health and well-being to decline.

"I feel more stress and anxiety because I know I really only do grocery shopping on weeks that I get paid," said Natalia Cruz, who is Panamanian-American and a senior theater production and political science major at Kent State University. "But when it's also a week where I have bills and stuff, sometimes I'll wait to do groceries again [until] the next paycheck just to make sure that I have enough money for all my bills."

International students are also at risk of experiencing food insecurity, said Josh Perkins, the Assistant Dean of Students of the CARES Center at Kent State University. The CARES Center provides resources to Kent State students to support their financial, housing, food, and mental well-being needs.

"We see a lot of international students come in because they're limited on the number of hours that they can work, especially if they're new students to the [United] States," Perkins said. "That leads to food insecurity for sure."

SNAP benefits temporarily extended to students

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ohio state government temporarily allowed college students access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) if the financial aid application process determined that their families weren't expected to contribute to their education costs.

"If those two exemptions were permanent, that would capture not everybody - but a very, very, very large amount of low-income students that need to be captured, that should be eligible for the SNAP program," said Lane-Gavin.

SNAP is the largest federally funded anti-hunger program in the United States, according to the National Library of Medicine. But for college students to be eligible for SNAP benefits today, you have to meet requirements like being able to work 20 or more hours per week or being eligible to participate in work study on campus.

Cruz said the SNAP application process was challenging.

"Filling out the form [is] kind of stressful," said Cruz. "And then once you submit it, they take so long... I applied last month but I still haven't heard really anything from them."

Lane-Gavin thinks universities can do more to help students take advantage of resources like SNAP.

"That sect of universities that are in charge of student life, campus life and as well as financial aid folks need to be more well versed in how [the] SNAP program works," Lane-Gavin said.

In the meantime, campus food pantries can help students bridge gaps in between paychecks.

"We have two food pantries on the Kent campus," said Perkins of KSU's CARES Center. "I think a big piece is getting the information out there to students. We're pursuing all the avenues. We know how to get in front of students on how to get food."

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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Food pantries run by rural churches are often a lifeline for older, retired residents or those living with a disability.

Come to the Table is a program run by Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, which aims to help North Carolina's faith leaders learn about the root causes of hunger, and the role industrial agriculture plays in perpetuating food access inequities.

Justine Post, Come to the Table program director, pointed out while many churches offer critical stopgap services, congregations want to move beyond emergency services, to address the systemic issues.

"They're often noticing some common trends, which is maybe that a lot of younger families are coming in, or people who have full-time jobs, and it's just not enough," Post observed. "They feel like there should be more that can be done to address their needs."

More than 40 faith leaders across North Carolina will convene in January to begin the four-month-long training program. Post noted next year, Come to the Table is expanding its reach to accept applicants from outside the state.

Lisa O'Donnell, administrator and food pantry coordinator at Cokesbury United Methodist Church in Stedman, said participating in the Come to the Table program has helped raise awareness on hunger in her congregation and given her new tools to tell hunger stories, so listeners understand food insecurity is happening all around them, every day.

"There is a billboard up not too far away from my house, and it's a child's face," O'Donnell remarked. "The caption said hunger can be hard to see, and that is something that is absolutely necessary to be known."

She added small church pantries are still struggling to meet the post-pandemic demand.

"We never ran out of food, which, to us, that's a miracle, because we're a tiny little church and a tiny little town," O'Donnell stressed. "But no matter, and we went from serving eight families a week to serving almost 40 families a week, every week."

Reliance on food pantries in North Carolina is up by 35%, according to data from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.