Oct 31, 2014

More Ohioans turning to food pantries, study shows

More than 1 in 6 Ohioans — more than 2 million people — don’t have enough to eat and turn to pantries for food each year, according to a new report, “Hunger in Ohio 2014.” The study, released yesterday by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, showed a 40 percent jump in the number of people seeking help from four years ago.

“Ask the general public; they think the biggest crisis in America right now is Ebola," said Matt Habash, president and chief executive officer of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. "We think Ebola is a crisis in America. Now if we had 2 million Ohioans having Ebola can you imagine the response to that? And yet, we don’t think about hunger and poverty as a crisis. We think about it as a way of life."

Read more in the Columbus Dispatch.