Why Ohio? Why Do So Many In Ohio Receive Food Assistance?

[Rick Rowlands]

My guess is that so many people receive food assistance because it is there for them to get.  Free stuff is ALWAYS popular.

[connie254]

I found that many of the employees that I work with go to food banks where they don't have to prove their income. One of them actually claims she has no money, gets paid well, goes to these food banks and goes on vacation at least once a year in Florida. A couple my parents knew visited these places all the time but didn't need to(they have long passed away).
I will donate goods to those places where people must prove income because of these people.

[irishbobcat]

Why Ohio? Why Do So Many In Ohio Receive Food Assistance?

Every week last year, 225,700 Ohioans received emergency food assistance from a pantry, soup kitchen or similar service.

A report released today by the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks illustrates the recession's devastating impact on the state.

In all, more than 1.4 million Ohioans received emergency food assistance at least once, and often more frequently, in 2009.

That's a jump of 18 percent from three years ago, the report found.

40 percent of those surveyed in Ohio say they must choose between food and medicine or other health care needs. Thirty-one percent have at least one household member in poor health."

Among the other findings:

* More than a third of those receiving assistance are children.

* 32 percent of households include at least one employed adult.

* Half of those surveyed say they have had to choose between buying food and paying for utilities.

The report is heartbreaking. Yet it underscores the fact that Ted Strickland's campaign to bring jobs back to Ohio is not working. We need to turn Ohio forward in the way we market the state and go after new blue-green jobs.

Ted Strickland's plan to cut more state funding for social programs underscores the need for more increased state revenues instead of Ted's current campaign of axing more social programs. The poor can no longer afford to have Ted Strickland in office another four years.