As SNAP Resumes, MOFC Spotlights Shutdown’s Impact, Calls for Program’s Protection

Leaders must prevent further disruptions to critical anti-hunger program

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The end of the shutdown and the resumption of SNAP benefits are necessary and critical steps to keeping up the fight against hunger in Ohio, but this moment should be met only with relief, not celebration.

As food banks have said for months, SNAP is America’s largest and most effective hunger relief program. Its disruption was unwelcome and profoundly distressing to the thousands of central and eastern Ohio families it threw into crisis.

Parents and children waited in the cold for food at emergency distributions. Others went into debt to buy groceries or made do without other essentials. For many, true financial recovery is likely months away. Their pain was preventable, and its effects on their lives won’t be quickly fixed or forgotten.

MOFC, local pantries, and our wider community rallied to our neighbors’ side. We sought emergency funding to buy and distribute more food and keep up with demand. Direct financial support came from the State of Ohio, Franklin County, the City of Columbus, and local foundations and donors. When the federal government shut down, they stepped up to help our work continue.

So did everyday Ohioans. Individuals, families, churches, and workplaces came forward with donations. Small businesses held food drives. Restaurants gave out free meals. Parents handed out food alongside candy to Halloween trick-or-treaters. Neighbors collected cans door to door.

All these efforts helped us put more fresh produce, eggs, milk, and meat on pantry shelves during the shutdown and on families’ plates this holiday season. Thank you, Ohio leaders and residents. We asked you to help us hold the line against hunger. You did.

While we recognize our community’s remarkable efforts, such a response would never have been necessary if SNAP hadn’t been allowed to lapse. MOFC is proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with our community, but we must be clear with our national leaders on three points:

• This was an avoidable crisis. Our hungry neighbors are people. Their wellbeing should never have been put at risk.
• No community can hold the line against hunger by itself (even one as giving as ours). Food banks, pantries, and donors cannot make up for SNAP.
• This cannot be allowed to happen again. We will always step up in moments of crisis, but every community’s generosity has limits. Such heroic local responses are not typical, sustainable, or repeatable. For the good of our region and state, SNAP cannot be disrupted again.

Above all, we hope the past weeks will serve as a lesson and a warning. SNAP keeps Ohioans healthy and prosperous. Without it, kids go hungry, seniors must fend for themselves, and families are forced to make impossible choices. We will continue to fight with and for our customers for a future in which no one goes hungry. SNAP is core to that vision and remains our first line of defense against hunger. We look forward to working with our elected leaders to safeguard and strengthen the program on behalf of our hungry neighbors.

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About Mid-Ohio Food Collective
Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC) is the largest hunger relief organization in central and eastern Ohio. Through our five assets (the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Mid-Ohio Farm, Mid-Ohio Farmacy, Mid-Ohio Kitchen, and Mid-Ohio Market), MOFC addresses the root causes of hunger while working with more than 600 partner agencies in 20 counties to feed hundreds of thousands of hungry Ohioans every year. Learn how we’re co-creating hunger-free, healthier communities at www.mofc.org.