By: Susan Tebben
The Thanksgiving holiday is known to include tables full of food, but with Ohioans still feeling the effects of federal cuts to SNAP and food banks still bending under the weight of demand, for some the table won’t be quite as full.
The federal government’s shutdown and the hold-up it caused for existing SNAP benefits didn’t help matters. The Ohio Association of Foodbanks served 46% more people at state food pantries from Nov. 1 to Nov. 21 than it had on average in each of the previous months this year.
“This situation underscored the critical importance of SNAP as the first line of defense against hunger for many families, seniors, and disabled Ohioans that would regularly face food budget shortfalls without support from SNAP,” Joree Novotny, executive director of the association, told the Capital Journal.
Even prior to the shutdown, the association was already seeing increases in the first quarter of this year, and had concerns about how they would sustain the help amid growing demand.
“While the impact of the shutdown shined a light on the issue, food insecurity was far too prevalent before the shutdown and remains far too prevalent in its aftermath,” Novotny said.
From July to September of this year, the network saw a 6.7% increase in food provided compared to the same period in 2024, a 14% increase from 2023, and a nearly 41% increase from 2022. This included take-home groceries, hot meals and meals provided at community sites.
Food banks had to accommodate reductions in federal contributions from the USDA, which Novotny said they did by sourcing more than 28 million pounds of donated food, and spending monetary donations on 16.2 million pounds on food. That sourcing made up 70% of all the food provided through the network.
“Normally, federal and state (contributions) represent about half of all of the food our network distributes,” Novotny said. “This level of private purchasing cannot be sustained, particularly by food banks serving areas of the state facing philanthropy gaps and wider disparity in resources.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.SUBSCRIBEFood pantries weren’t the only ones attempting to make up for the SNAP shortfalls. The Children’s Hunger Alliance worked to battle child hunger impacts from the SNAP situation, despite seeing drops in state funding. The alliance’s state contribution went from the governor’s proposal that would have provided $3.75 million in each of the next two years, down to $3 million in fiscal year 2026 and $2.5 million in 2027 as approved in the final budget.
While the alliance was able to “hold the line” with regard to federal and state support in combination with private donations, changes in childhood food insecurity take a year or more to understand, according to the organization’s president, Michelle M. Brown.
“The SNAP disruption during the government shutdown may continue to affect low-income families in the weeks and months ahead, because many were forced to make difficult budget choices in November,” Brown said.
The leader said there are still “looming threats to federal food programs” that could send families right back into the dilemma of making hard decisions between paying bills and putting food on the table.
In 2024, the Children’s Hunger Alliance served 10.8 million meals to more than 161,000 children in 76 Ohio counties, according to alliance data.
More than 517,000 children experienced food insecurity in Ohio in 2023, according to the most recent data from Feeding America. Of those, 72% met the income eligibility for federal food assistance programs like SNAP.
“Childhood hunger is a solvable issue – it just requires public and private leadership, financial resources, and communities united behind the belief that every child deserves the chance to thrive and reach their full potential,” Brown said.
The alliance built a partnership with public and private donors to launch the “Thanksgiving Meals initiative,” providing food and a gift cards to 1,900 households in central Ohio this year. The organization also extended their Weekend Meals program during the Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks “to ensure children across Ohio have access to nutritious meals when school’s out.”
