The Community Care food bank in Manchester, Ohio is open on Tuesdays, so I decided to stop by once again this morning—both to get an update on their work but also to support them.
First, know what a stunning day it is in Southern Ohio, especially along the river, where Manchester sits:
But only blocks from this stunning sight is a picture of the hardships of the rural Midwest.
As I described from my last visit, the food bank here faces a squeeze from multiple ends. So I decided to pay a visit to learn what’s happened since. (The Big Ugly Bill had not yet passed).
And as I feared, none of it is good news.
First, the freeze to emergency FEMA grants means that the funds this food bank relies on to purchase its food are frozen. So they are running through those funds, unable to replenish them.
That hasn’t changed since my last visit.
Second, recent deliveries of food have dwindled.
They are low on bread:
And they said they were especially low on fruit. Usually these boxes (pictured below) rise high, close to the ceiling—but today, this was all they received. They’re not sure why—they speculated it was demand elsewhere:
Third, as was explained to me last time, demand (and traffic) usually goes up later in the month, as residents’ SNAP benefits run out.
And that certainly seemed to be the case today. Past records I saw suggested that on typical days, about 25-30 families would come through on a single day.
Today, 22 families came through…in the first 15-20 minutes after opening:
When I explained that the new budget bill had cut SNAP more than anytime in the program’s history, including more than $400M in Ohio, the response (paraphrasing): “well, that’s going to lead to a whole lot more people here.”
Play this scene out across America, folks. And play it out beyond food insecurity as well.
To health care, housing, and other essentials people need to get by every day.
While those at the top get the big tax breaks and the handouts, this is how those who are struggling are being treated; and it’s how those who help those who are struggling are being squeezed.
Plain wrong all around.
Thank you Greg Rogers, Rarelightmare, Marliss Desens, Sharon Zatopek, and many others for tuning into my live video!
