Ohio Association of Foodbanks

The Ohio food and agriculture clearance programs (ofpacp) provide an extensive, nourishing selection of food to families and individuals who are eligible to receive food through Ohio's emergency food network with support of $23,595,090.60. Through a statewide partnership with more than 70 Ohio producers, this program purchased 26.2 million pounds of surplus and unmarketable agricultural products, and the Ohio food program purchased over 15.9 million pounds of shelf stable food. These programs are funded by the state of Ohio, through the Ohio department of job and family services (odjfs) and provided 42,199,961 pounds of food and grocery products to Ohio Foodbanks. The program provided $2.946 million to Ohio's 12 Foodbanks to cover their expenses and cost to store and distribute food across the state of Ohio. In addition, the program provided $109,419.00, in capacity building grants to member charities served by the Association member Foodbanks.

The Association in partnership with the Ohio departments of job and family services, agriculture and education received a new 3-year cooperative agreement from u.s. department of agriculture to support the local food purchase assistance program (lfpa) cooperative agreement. The Ohio lfpa program, named the Ohio community agriculture and nutrition (Ohio can) project purchased in-demand food products from local, socially disadvantaged producers and distributed them to underserved communities and food insecure families with support of $7,048,135.85. The program contracted with trusted food distribution networks of socially disadvantaged farmers, purchasing their food products allowing Ohio can, to expand the food supply chain to local producers and communities in need. In the first year of operation the Association connected and purchased from 102 farmers and producers, five food hubs and aggregators and purchased 1,535,743 pounds of fresh vegetables, proteins, and grains. 100% of the local and regional purchases were new marketing opportunities for socially disadvantaged producers, women owned and bipoc operations that the lfpa has helped to establish.

The Association received two grants from the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds (slfrf)/ american rescue plan act (arpa). The arpa 1 portion of the program provided $15,007,607.00 through a grant from the state of Ohio to purchase 7,743,179 pounds of Ohio grown and raised protein products from Ohio livestock producers at an average cost of $1.928 per pound for distribution to Ohio's 12 feeding america member Foodbanks, 1 non-member foodbank and 3,664 member charities. This program provided 30.972 million servings of protein to hungry ohioans. The arpa 2 portion of the program was funded through a $25 million earmark from the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds (slfrf)/ american rescue plan act (arpa) to support a 2-year appropriation from the Ohio general assembly to provide the Association with funding to purchase Ohio produced protein foods, shelf staple foods and personal care, personal hygiene and household cleaning products for hungry ohioans in need of emergency food assistance. Through june 30, 2023, the program had purchased 4,173,040 pounds of food and grocery items at a cost of $2,997,686.32, at an average cost of $0.718 per pound. The arpa 2 program provided $438,685.79 in support of direct program operations, monitoring, oversight and to reimburse Foodbanks for their expenses and cost to store and distribute food across the state of Ohio.

The Association operates the affordable care act (aca) navigator program, supporting a statewide consortium of eight (8) non-profit organizations and the connecting kids to coverage collaborative, with support of $2,651,103.41, from the federal centers for medicaid and medicare services (cms). The program supported 49 navigators who worked across the state to raise awareness of affordable health insurance options, including medicaid and coverage through the federal health insurance marketplace to help people enroll in coverage and connect newly insured people with the healthcare services they need. Outreach included a statewide paid advertising campaign allowing oaf navigators and ckc partners to reach more than 3.7 million ohioans through event-based outreach, earned media, and other direct outreach strategies. In fy 2023, oaf navigators and ckc enrollment staff helped more than 9,876 ohioans enroll in health insurance, including 822 through marketplace enrollments and 9,054 medicaid referrals/enrollments. In addition, navigators helped over 1,300 ohioans learn how to look for in-network providers, connect almost 3,100 ohioans to local healthcare providers and assist more than 3,500 ohioans to access preventative health care services.

Corporation for national & community service (cncs) funds the Association to support four different americorps national service programs including americorps vista, americorps vista summer associates, and seniorcorps. Americorps members perform a wide variety of activities depending on the program in which they participate. The program received support of $1,075,439.22 to support various programs and activities including supporting summer food service program and the commodity supplemental food program. All americorps members contribute to capacity building at the organizations in which they are located. To date, the Association has placed more than 1,817 national service members; those national service members have recruited 52,639 volunteers who have served more than 7.8 million summer meals and raised 11.4 million in cash and in-kind donations.

The Association in partnership with the governor's office of faith-based and community initiatives and the Ohio department of job and family services operates a suite of innovative, state-funded summer meals programs for at-risk children in high-need communities. These include the weekend meals program, the rural delivery meals program for underserved children, as well as funding for mobile farmers markets targeted to serve low-income families with children. In 2023, $2,443,487.66 supported the purchase and distribution of food to provide 55,000 weekend back packs through 21 sites distributing 165,000 meals; provided 40,000 rural meals boxes containing 360,000 meals the were distributed through 10 non-profit sponsors and purchased and distributed 800,661 pounds of fresh fruits, vegetables and protein items at 20 fresh farmers markets distribution sites.

The Association is a contractor of the state of Ohio to operate snap outreach and application assistance activities in partnership with usda food and nutrition service and 8 regional Foodbanks in Ohio. In sfy 2023, the Association administered $1,914,245.24 in federal grant funding and provided support for snap outreach partners who distributed 3.53 million brochures and other marketing materials to ohioans potentially eligible for snap; completed 67,140 pre-screenings to determine potential eligibility for snap benefits; and helped 27,400 likely snap eligible Ohio households complete applications for snap benefits. The abawd work experience program (wep) was funded through a grant agreement with franklin county department of job and family services in the amount of $585,212.45 supported these outcomes: work readiness assessments: staff completed work readiness assessments with 1,453 franklin county adults, identifying barriers to employment. Promoting paid employment: 111 participants found paid employment, earning an average of $15.23 per hour, and exited the program.

Home energy assistance program (heap) outreach received a grant in the amount of $75,362.64 from the Ohio development services agency to support a contract with community reinvestment resources, llc, an organization established that operates the veterans comprehensive assistance program (vcap), through this program vcap helped 504 veterans apply for heap benefits. Vcap also helped connect 218 veterans with snap benefits, 158 veterans with medicaid, 61 veterans with part-time employment, 24 veterans with legal aid services, 43 veterans to housing, 100 veterans with additional financial assistance, 151 veterans to support with transportation and 261 veterans with other information and referral services.

The Association received $401,114.49 in support from caresource, Ohio penal industries, usda, feeding america and best buy. These funds are to support the project between the Association and opi, freight and farm to foodbank.