CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County on Monday approved $250,000 in emergency aid to replenish food supplies in the region and distribute goods to residents still recovering from the effects of a severe storm earlier this month.
Residents should begin to see these benefits soon, but officials are still working out the details, including which organizations will receive the county’s support.
The tornadoes that ripped through northeast Ohio’s suburbs on Aug. 6 left more than 300,000 residents without power — some for as long as a week — and forced many residents to throw away spoiled food, county Health and Human Services Director David Merriman told the county’s Board of Supervisors on Monday. Many of those residents are turning to food banks, food pantries, hunger centers and other food assistance programs for assistance.
Typically this time of year, United Way’s 211 hotline receives about 280 calls a week from citizens seeking food assistance, Merriman said. But the week after the storm, the county received 910 calls, he said, and the Greater Cleveland Food Bank reported double that volume through its call center.
Franco Formichelli, director of 211, said most calls come from residents of Cleveland, Euclid, East Cleveland and Lakewood.
Julie Johnson, CEO of The Hunger Network, said her food pantries have also seen an increase of up to 40% since the storm. A coordinator at a food bank told her they recently ran out of food and had to turn people away.
“In all her years of providing food, she never ran out of food for people,” Johnson said.
With the additional funding, Merriman said, it is hoped that food centers will be able to restock their supplies to meet this need, but it is not yet clear how this will be done.
“We are still working out all the details,” he said, adding, “(Executive Director) Chris Ronayne has heard a lot about the need for food from seniors, families, the working poor and anyone else struggling with food insecurity as a result of the storm” and asked for additional money to fill the gaps.
Merriman recommends residents in need call 211 to find out where to best get help. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank and some area food pantries typically limit food assistance to households earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level, but CEO Kristin Warzocha said they made exceptions this week and the food distribution sites are always open to anyone.
The county’s Department of Job and Family Assistance is also working to replace SNAP benefits for residents who lost food during the power outage.
To qualify, affected SNAP recipients must complete an application form and may be asked to provide proof that they were without power for an extended period of time — such as screenshots of news reports, text or email notifications, or outage maps showing that their specific area was without power for four hours or more.
Residents have until September 5 to apply, and the county said it is currently working to fulfill those requests.
