“In any given week, 207,000 different Ohioans receive emergency food assistance,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks (OASHF). “Hunger continues to be at the center of the lives of large numbers of Ohioans, with nearly one in three Ohioans lives in a household that doesn’t earn enough to pay for housing, food, health care and other necessities.” Hamler-Fugitt said that some Ohio parents are even forced to choose which bills get paid – and, at times, which members of the family get to eat.

 

Released in Ohio by OASHF, the national report, Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2005 – 2007, states that 3.5 million American children, ages five and under, are food insecure. In Ohio, more than 23 percent of children under the age of five, or more than 170,000, live in food insecure homes, ranking the state third in the nation just behind Louisiana and North Carolina.

 

The report, funded with a grant from the ConAgra Foods Foundation, also found that 18.7 percent of all Ohio children under the age of 18, or more than 520,000, live in food insecure homes. The national average is 17.3 percent.

 

“These are real-life Ohio families living with hunger each and every day, and those who are teetering on the brink of hunger,” said Hamler-Fugitt. “Our economy is struggling, and Ohio families are suffering – as the state budget remains under consideration in the Senate, we continue to urge lawmakers to take immediate action to address this critical issue.”

 

Hamler-Fugitt said although the new data is cause for concern, what is even more alarming is that the data predates the current recession, which already is causing dramatic increases in demand at the state’s hunger relief organizations.

 

“Without question, the current economy is causing unprecedented strain on the emergency food network,” she said. “Our foodbanks, food pantries and other hunger relief providers are in crisis – high prices for food, utilities and medicines, combined with wage stagnation and rapidly growing unemployment, have resulted in longer lines at our organizations and threaten the long-term viability of our network.”

 

The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks is Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger, representing 12 foodbanks and 3,000 member charities including food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. OASHF and its network of providers serve more than 1.8 million Ohioans each year, distributing more than 97 million pounds of food and grocery items. Of those clients served, more than 213,000 are seniors, and nearly 617,000 are children.

 

For more information about the Child Food Insecurity report, please contact the OASHF at www.oashf.org or 614-221-4336.