COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC) is seeing record-high needs this year.
“In this one location, just one market, we serve an average of 400 to 600 families each day,” MOFC Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs Mike Hochron said. “The demand for food feels almost unlimited.”
Hochron said October was the busiest month in the organization’s four-decade history and said the need is now consistently 40% to 60% higher than it was during the peak of the COVID pandemic.
“These are for reasons that all of us feel,” he said. “Just the cost of living, food is up 20% or more, the cost of housing and transportation and just all of these things that really put strain on families’ budgets.”
Hochron said nearly two-thirds of the food they distribute is fresh food because they “know that’s what families start cutting back on when their budgets are tight.”
Hochron said MOFC is going to rely heavily on state and federal programs to keep their food stocked.
“We're always going to be here to serve our neighbors,” he said. “But whether their shopping cart is mostly for or mostly empty really depends on forces outside of our control.”
Hochron said the Ohio Association of Food Banks will be asking the state for $50 million each year for the next two years just to keep up with the demand they see statewide.
“That is just what we need in order to keep up with the demand we’ve seen and make sure that Ohioans are not sitting down to empty tables,” Hochron said. “Nobody ever imagines being here until life happens. And it's so important that we and our entire food bank network across Ohio are in a position to be there and help our neighbors when it comes.”
Their ask during next year’s biennial state budget will be twice as much as they asked for two years ago during that budget season.
“The cost of just doing business, of sourcing food, of buying food with the resources when we can, has gotten more expensive,” Hochron said. “So even flat funding, consistent funding would fundamentally be a cut to our services. It would mean less food in our communities and hungry Ohioans across the state not being able to get what they need.”
But the state budget will likely be tighter than usual this year because federal funding from the pandemic has dried up, but Hochron said he is hopeful that food banks across Ohio will be able to get the support they need from the state.
For help finding a MOFC market or food bank near you, click here and enter your zip code. There are several open food banks in central Ohio on Friday and hours can be found online.
