Food insecurity rising amid pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has raised insecurity about food supply for many Franklin County residents, local officials say.

Among the Black, Latino and white populations, a recent survey shows an increased percentage of people feeling insecure about being able to put food on the table, said Michelle Moskowitz Brown, executive director of Local Matters, a nonprofit agency devoted to promoting better access to healthy food.

“People are struggling to make ends meet,” Brown said. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in unemployment for thousands.

Mid-ohio Food Collective — which supplies many food pantries in central Ohio — has seen a 55% increase in clients with 23,000 more families served this year compared to the same period last year, Brown said.

Restaurants are one of the hardest hit food-related industries. Brown said it’s believed that 1 in 10 restaurants will be forced to close their doors forever because of the pandemic.

Brown made the observations Tuesday during a meeting of the Columbus City Council’s Health and Human Services Committee.

Councilwoman Priscilla Tyson chaired the meeting to review how the Local Food Action Plan has worked during the past year.

Tyson and Franklin County Commissioner John O’grady helped to create the Local Food Action Plan for the city and county in 2014. The plan is designed to address issues concerning the local food system with the aim of improving food access, community health, the economy and the environment.

In particular, Tyson said the plan was driven by statistics that showed that thousands of Columbus and Franklin County residents — particularly those in economically challenged neighborhoods — lacked convenient access to grocery stores and healthy food options.

Dewine listened to the doctors and scientists and acted.

He resolved that Ohio would strive to flatten a predicted spiral in virus cases to give the medical system time to stockpile and avoid having hospitals and medical workers overwhelmed by the sick and dying.

Dewine became the first governor in the nation to close K-12 schools, announcing on March 12 they would close at the end of classes March 17. He also convinced Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to call off political rallies March 10, the first cancellation of their major campaign events.

With Ohio still short of 500 total COVID-19 cases, Dewine enacted a stayat-home order March 23, forcing businesses deemed unessential to close and Ohioans into quarantine but for trips for necessities.

The order ultimately was extended to May 1, throwing more than 1 million Ohioans out of work and wrecking personal, business and government finances.

The state surpassed 1,000 cases March 27 and the pandemic began to accelerate. It claimed increasing numbers of elderly nursing home and longterm care patients who ultimately accounted for more than 2,100 fatalities or about 70% of the virus death toll as of mid-july.

COVID-19 swept through inmates and staff at state prisons such as Pickaway Correctional Institution and Marion Correctional Institution, which became the two biggest single-site outbreaks in the nation. More than 5,000 inmates and staff members were infected and five staff members and 86 inmates died.

Amid massive testing in prisons, the numbers exploded, with Ohio surpassing 13,000 cases on April 21. Dewine and Acton counseled Ohioans at daily news conferences to do their part to help restrain the spread of COVID-19. Stay home. Wear a mask. Avoid gatherings.

The daily case numbers then began to tick down, at least to a level seen as manageable as a public health threat that had avoided overburdening hospitals with infected patients. Ohio’s testing program was substandard when compared to other states, and has remained so despite promised improvements.

By the expiration of the May 1 stayat-home order, and with case numbers holding steady, Dewine, with fellow Republicans and business interests lobbying him hard, decided Ohio could no longer shoulder the painful price of the shutdown.

He began a gradual reopening of businesses with safety precautions in place throughout May and into early June. A wearied Acton resigning June 11, a personal price paid for her cautious advocacy.

Dewine and Acton feared — even warned — that the reopening could be accompanied by an increase in cases. They were wrong, at least initially.

Cases actually dropped by nearly 40% from early May to mid-june. Ohio appeared to have pulled off a reopening while still restraining the spread of the virus.

But, something changed. Perhaps Ohioans numb to the virus dropped their guard – and their face masks. Dewine’s regular lectures on masks and social distancing seemingly had little effect, including among politicians as GOP legislators personally rejected Dewine’s admonitions and sought to limit state health powers and shut-down orders.

The number of cases, particularly among younger adults, began to climb, as the latter half of June passed. Outbreaks were reported out of family gatherings, workplaces and churches.

The curve Ohio once had flattened was on the rise – and dramatically so.

After June 21, coronavirus cases have doubled as Ohio recorded 10 of the 12 highest daily case totals of the pandemic, including a record 1,525 Friday. A full 36% of the total cases during the more than four-month-long pandemic have come in the past 25 days.

With the growing number of infections “frightening,” as Dewine described them, the state decided it could no longer sit it out as July came.

He unveiled a county virus spread and risk evaluation alert system, accompanied by a mask order for Level 3 or “red” counties such as Franklin, Hamilton, Cuyahoga and Summit. The number of counties now under the designation – and under masks – total a dozen and cover half of Ohio’s population.

Ohio continued its trend of elevated coronavirus cases Wednesday with the sixth-highest number of new daily cases since the pandemic began.

Another 1,316 Ohioans tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That brings the total number of confirmed and probable cases in Ohio to 69,311.

Virus hospitalizations surged to their highest point in three weeks Wednesday as 160 more people were admitted to hospitals in the last 24 hours. A total of 9,209 Ohioans have been hospitalized for COVID-19.

An additional six Ohioans died of COVID-19 by Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 3,075, according to the state health department.

Dispatch reporter Max Filby contributed to this story. rludlow@dispatch.com @Randyludlow