locally grown food essential to meet demands on ohio’s foodbanks

Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks endorses Issue 2

by Lisa Hamler-Fugitt

As our state continues to struggle in a very difficult economy and rising unemployment, Ohioans are finding it more and more difficult to meet their families’ basic needs and that includes providing nutritious, affordable meals.

Every day the pressure mounts on our state’s foodbanks as the number of hungry Ohioans turning to them for help increases at alarming rates. That is why it is critical that we do what we can to protect an excellent food supply chain in Ohio that we all too often take for granted.

One step we each can take in this direction is voting “Yes” on State Issue 2 on the Nov. 3 ballot. State Issue 2 would create an Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board that would be charged with “prescribing standards for animal care and well-being that endeavor to maintain food safety, encourage locally grown and raised food, and protect Ohio farms and families.”

The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger, is endorsing State Issue 2 for a number of reasons, most importantly being the need to have a program in place that protects a safe food supply that is locally grown and reasonably priced.

Those who seek out the services of our foodbanks and the charities we serve are always in desperate need of high-quality, and affordable food – especially protein-rich meat, milk and eggs.

In some states such as California and Florida extreme activist groups have succeeded in enacting costly, burdensome, antifarming laws and regulations for animal care. These extreme policies threaten the continued production of meat, milk and eggs in those states and could result in those products no longer being affordable or even available.

That is a situation that we simply cannot have happen in Ohio as we are currently struggling to provide more and more basic foodstuffs to a growing number of citizens.  

Issue 2 is Ohio’s plan to protect our food supply while ensuring excellent care and state oversight of Ohio livestock and poultry. Our organization gets behind that because we place a unique value on the state’s agriculture community.

First, Ohio’s farmers have partnered with the state’s foodbanks for more than a decade – working through state-funded agriculture surplus programs and statewide donation programs to put fresh and nutritious fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs on the tables of the clients we serve.  More than 150 million meals have been served to Ohio’s hungry families thanks to those Ohioans working on our farms.

Second, as those who work with the most vulnerable citizens in our state, foodbanks know the important role that agriculture plays in providing almost a million jobs in our state.  These are good, reliable jobs that should be protected, and these jobs shape the fabric of our rural communities – places where a good job is not always easy to come by.  That economic well-being is as vital to our state as is an ample supply of low-cost meat, milk and eggs.

The struggle to try and feed the thousands of Ohioans facing hunger every day becomes increasingly difficult as state and local governments struggle with budget cuts, individual families face mounting economic pressures, and all segments of business and industry battle to be globally competitive.  We can’t afford any missteps when it comes to the state’s overall economic health or our ability to put food on the table.

In this climate, all Ohioans must work hand-in-hand to help each other meet these challenges. Voting “Yes” on Issue 2 – a sensible and sound approach to protecting local, affordable food production -- is one way to do just that.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt is executive director of Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.

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