CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County on Monday approved $250,000 in emergency assistance to help area food pantries restock and distribute goods to residents still recovering from the strong storm earlier this month.
Residents should see those benefits soon, but officials are still working out details, including which organizations will receive the county aid.
The tornados that tore through Northeast Ohio suburbs on Aug. 6 left over 300,000 residents without power – some for as long as a week – forcing many residents to throw out spoiled food, the county’s Director of Health and Human Services David Merriman explained to the county’s Board of Control Monday. Many of those residents are turning to food banks, pantries, hunger centers and other assistance meal assistance programs for support.
Normally, this time of year, the United Way’s 211 line receives about 280 calls per week from residents seeking food assistance, Merriman said. In the week following the storm, however, the county received 910 calls, he said, and The Greater Cleveland Food Bank reported double the volume through its call center.
Franco Formichelli, director of 211, said most calls are from residents in Cleveland, Euclid, East Cleveland and Lakewood.
Julie Johnson, CEO of The Hunger Network, said their pantries are also reporting increases up to 40%, since the storm. One hot meal site coordinator told her they ran out of food recently and had to turn people away.
“In all the years she’s provided food, she’s never run out of food to serve folks,” Johnson said.
The extra dollars, Merriman said, are hoped to allow food centers restock supplies to respond to that need, though it’s not clear yet how it will be rolled out.
“We’re still working through all the details,” he said, adding that “(Executive) Chris Ronayne has heard a lot about the need for food from seniors, from families, from the working poor and anybody else that’s dealing with food insecurity as a result of the storm” and requested the additional dollars to fill in the gaps.
Merriman recommends residents in need contact 211 to learn where is best for them to access assistance. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank and some area pantries usually limit food assistance to households earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level, though CEO Kristin Warzocha said they’ve been making exceptions this week, and meal centers are always open to anyone.
The county’s Department of Job and Family Services is also working to replace SNAP benefits for residents who lost food during the power outage.
To qualify, impacted SNAP recipients must complete a request form and may be asked to provide evidence that they lost power for an extended period – such as screenshots of news reports, text or email alerts, or outage maps showing their specific area was without power for four hours or more.
Residents have until Sept. 5 to apply, and the county says it is working to fill those requests now.
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