CLEVELAND — After they saw record numbers last year, food banks in Northeast Ohio remind everyone that hunger doesn't get a holiday and the need is still great.
Gloria Woods has volunteered at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank for eight years. She says she loves it and has seen an increase in people coming in.
“They all come here because they want to help,” said Woods.
This comes two weeks after the Greater Cleveland Food Bank ended their Muni lot distribution that they started in March 2020. Over the span of three-plus years, they distributed 19 million pounds of food, feeding more than 36,000 households, and 2023 was one of the busiest of those years.
“Comparative speaking from last year, it's about 15,000 more people than we serve last year,” said Jessica Morgan, Chief programs officer at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
A month before they ended distribution, they began to welcome people into their new community resource center, where those in need can shop through the market to get whatever food they'd like. The food bank knew they needed a place for people to route to after the ending of the Muni distribution, and they have seen a slow increase in attendance.
“We're seeing more and more people in our Community Resource Center since we opened the doors there in November. We know that we will see more people into the month of January,” said Morgan.
At the Akron-Canton Regional food bank they had a similar drive-thru distribution that they just ended, as they prepare to open their on-campus food pantry at the end of the month. They say they saw a 25% increase in people seeking help.
“Yeah, so in general, this year was one of our busiest years on record. We estimated more than 3 million visits were made to our hunger relief network in 2023,” said Raven Gayheart, the director of Marketing and Public Relations at the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank.
They also saw more donations, but it still didn't match the need.
“Yes, we made up the loss of food donations that we were receiving pre-pandemic. We made that up by 16%. It just wasn't enough to keep up with that almost 30% increase in people looking for help,” said Gayheart.
Though the holidays helped because it’s usually a busy time of year, people still walked away hungry.
“More people are having a difficult time making ends meet we always say you know, 'hunger doesn't take a holiday,'” said Gayheart.
Jessica and Raven remind people that food insecurity is still an issue and they always need donations and volunteers.
“We love volunteers coming to visit us over the holidays, but people are in need all year round,” said Morgan.
They need volunteers like Gloria who genuinely care to help.
"Just the thought that somebody doesn’t have enough to eat and there are a lot of folks who don't have enough to eat." Woods continued, "We are supposed to help each other and that's what we are doing."
For more details on the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, click here.
For more details on the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank, click here.
