Volunteers carry food for waiting cars in the Broad Street food closet through the Presbyterian Church in Columbus. (Photo from Marty Hardden, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Food banks in Ohio are as tense as it is. Huge redundancies of the safety network signed in the law in recent days can flood them, said the director of a grocery bank in Columbus last week.
President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” shortened trillions of taxes – the most for the biggest Americans – added trillions to federal debt and reduced more than $ 1 trillion dollars for Medicaid and the extra dining program or SNAP.
In recognition of The unpopularity of the programsome of the most painful benefits of benefits It will not take effect after the average time in 2026.S But some, such as administrative stress requirements, could cost large numbers their food benefits.
In addition, the state budget of the Ohio Mike Dewyn government, signed on June 30, provides $ 7.5 million less For food banks compared to last year.
These abbreviations are at the top of other recent redundancies and as more families need more due to the leakage of the Covid era, said Katie Kelly-Long, director of the Broad Presbyterian Food Chair in the Columbus.
“With the expiration of pandemic loans, our numbers continued to grow,” she said one morning last week as the volunteers rushed and left the closet.
While the closet served an average of 35 families a day in the midst of the pandemic in June 2021, it served an average of 58 last month. This is a 66% increase.
Volunteers in the Broad Street food closet of the Presbyterian Church in Columbus.
(Photo from Marty Hardden, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Among the abbreviations were already injured, one was the cancellation of the US Department of Agriculture Local Food Assistance Program On June 30. This program enabled food banks to buy directly from nearby farmers. Fell under An unofficial agency’s budget ax that Trump assigned the most rich man in the world To run.
“Many of these farmers relied on these funds-they have built some of their business around this,” Kelly-Long said. “The man who was here yesterday said they had lost a $ 25,000 business when (the program) came out. So there is economic cost as it is a fresh, local production worth $ 25,000, which does not spread to low -income families that do not have access to it.”
But her main concern is for customers who serve the closet.
“We can’t even start calculating what the loss of clicking dollars and Medicaid to people will mean,” Kelly-Long said. “Because the system is already broken, we cannot get enough food now. If numbers rise, we do not know how much food people will be able to get from us. Will it be close enough to feed their families?”
These clients are very hardworking people.
“There is a wonderful woman who has been shopping here for years,” Kelly-Long said. “She has been raised many grandchildren. She works full -time second shift. She comes here to have enough food to handle the week.”
Not only did the woman work to carry her own weight and raised two generations of children: “She is the one to whom the neighbors always turn when they need help,” Kelly-Long said.
As people lose health insurance and food benefits, as food banks are less capable of serving them, they will turn to cheaper, less nutritious maintenance, Kelly-Long said.
“This leads to heart disease, diabetes, hypertension,” she said. “We already have a disease related to the diet in this country. If you have more people who eat cheap food because they need calories but do not understand the nutrients, this will be complicated.”
She said she was disappointed with the lack of interest in American sensory. Bernie Moreno and John. Both are Republicans from Ohio who voted for the deep cuts of Medicaid and Snap.
“I made a few phone calls and I haven’t talked to a real person yet,” Kelly-Long said. “Senator Moreno, Senator Husted, all the emails I sent, I get the same email from the two, which shows that one of their staff may have read it, but maybe not.”
She added that legislators in Washington, Colombia and Columbus are failing when they accept accounts that are only beneficial to the few.
“For me, our legislators are not doing their job,” Kelly-Long said. “They were chosen to represent people in their areas – all people in their areas. And when they make decisions that are only beneficial for a few people and harm the majority, it does not do their job.”
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