The Greater Cleveland Food Bank faces a crisis that could leave thousands of Northeast Ohioans hungry as early as this week, bringing harsh criticism of the Donald Trump administration from “Today in Ohio” podcast hosts Chris Quinn and Lisa Garvin.
“The food bank is facing cancellation of 20 semi trucks full of food, and that could happen as early as this week,” explained Garvin. “This food is coming from the Federal Emergency Food Assistance Program. Each truck holds 100,000 pounds of food. So that’s $2 million worth of food.”
Garvin noted the truckloads represent about “a week’s worth of food for Northeast Ohio.” The cancellations appear to be part of broader federal spending cuts, but the hosts questioned whether this decision was deliberate policy or simply incompetence.
“I’ve got to think that Trump himself doesn’t know about this because this is too stupid for words,” Quinn said bluntly. “Nothing drives you more than hunger.”
The podcast highlighted how the cancellations would impact not just recipients but also local farmers. The food bank expects to lose “a million pounds of food from local… Food for Purchase Assistance,” which provides fresh food from area farmers to food banks. Garvin explained that “losing this program means that they can’t meet the demand for fresh food or protein, which is really expensive to replace and really hard to get donated to the food bank.”
The food bank is uncertain about when or if the issue will be resolved. According to Garvin, Food Bank CEO Kristin Warzocha is “worried that these trucks, this food is going to sit and spoil while things are getting worked out. And that would be the loss of 2 million, 3 million pounds of food.”
Quinn expressed particular frustration about the political shortsightedness of the move. “If you want to rally people to vote in the midterms, make them hungry, leave them without enough food. See how many show up to make their feelings known,” he said.
The podcasters noted that the federal cuts come as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s budget proposal calls for “a $7.5 million decrease in food bank funding in Ohio,” creating a perfect storm for hunger relief organizations.
The hosts emphasized that this isn’t just about feeding hungry people—it’s also about supporting local agriculture. “It isn’t just about them. It’s about the small and medium sized farmers in Ohio that are supplying this fresh fruit and produce. It’s become a business for them. It’s a big client for a lot of these people. So they’re affected too,” Garvin noted.
As of the podcast recording, there had been no explanation from the Department of Agriculture about the cancellations, leaving the food bank and its clients in limbo.
The “Today in Ohio” team promised to follow up with the food bank to determine exactly how many people could be affected by these cuts if they go forward.
Listen to the discussion here.
Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from Today in Ohio, a news podcast discussion by cleveland.com editors. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.
Listen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
发表回复