The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Second Harvest to kick off 2019 campaign
The annual Harvest for Hunger drive is the signature campaign for Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, bringing together local partners with the goal of raising support and awareness to address food insecurity locally. The campaign officially begins on March 10 and will extend through April with the goal of raising enough food to provide 1.25 million meals in 2019. President and CEO Chase-Morefield said an additional 1,200 households have benefitted from Second Harvest services this year, with December, 2018 serving the most people the organization has seen in five years.
She cited their mobile food pantry providing more than two million pounds of produce to families during the growing season in 2018, their senior food box program that is helping 1,500 low-income seniors each month, and their school pantry program. “We continue to look at new and innovative ways to ensure that anyone that needs help has access to the food they need. It’s the key reason why this campaign is so important to us. Harvest for Hunger is our most significant fundraising event of the year and we are proud to partner with our sister foodbanks: the Greater Cleveland Food bank, the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank and the Second Harvest Foodbank of the Mahoning Valley for one of the largest campaigns of its kind in the nation.” “Harvest for Hunger is not simply a campaign. It is a critical component of our work. Through the foods and funds raised through Harvest for Hunger we are able to restock the food supply for our 89 food pantries and our 42 hot meal programs in the region, allowing them to focus on meeting the needs of the families they serve.” Lorain County Community College (LCCC) President Marcia Ballinger is serving as honorary chair of the 2019 campaign. For the past year LCCC has been partnering with Second Harvest in order to address food insecurity on their campus. Through the Commodore Cupboard Food Pantry, the school provides food assistance to students and community members. In 2018 Commodore Cupboard saw a 23 percent increase in its usage. “I firmly believe that our values as staff, administrators and faculty really need to connect with the middle name of our institution which is community,” Ballinger said. Ballinger said she brought LCCC’s administrative leadership to Second Harvest on one afternoon recently to pack meals to learn what Second Harvest was all about. They ended up donating $1,100 which contributed to 5,500 meals. “That was really the beginning of some of the interconnectedness that has gone beyond the tremendous partnership we have with our Commodore Cupboard.” The Commodore Cupboard is LCCC’s campus commitment to end hunger and in 2018, Ballinger declared LCCC as a hungerfree campus. “I never want a student to come to the campus hungry. We know that oftentimes there are interconnected issues associated with that, so we are very compelled to offer wrap-around services for our students to be successful. Really trying to solve food insecurity is among those,” Ballinger added. Ballinger cited a recent survey which indicated 63 percent of LCCCstudents came to the campus hungry in the past 30 days, indicating hunger as a bigger problem than some may realize. In partnering with three other food banks in Northeast Ohio, the Harvest for Hunger campaign serves 21 counties in the state and helps provide food for 80,000, 50,000 of which are in Lorain County. For the 2019 campaign more than 50 local businesses and companies have signed on to the campaign in addition to bringing back the Check Out Hunger campaign, where residents can donate directly at Giant Eagle and Heinen’s grocery stores. “Together we can make a different,” Chase-Morefield said. Chase-Morefield said those who benefit most from local food programs are those who between 130 and 200 percent below the federal poverty line — often families, the elderly or disabled, whose jobs do not pay enough for them to make ends meet.