The ravages of Cleveland’s industrial past run through the Flats, then follow the lake east into the heart of Collinwood. Most of what remains there are dirty manufacturing sites and hollowed-out buildings once served by a spaghetti network of rail lines, all remnants of what was, long ago, a city’s undeniable greatness.
Any museum of that manufacturing would feature the Coit Road property that once housed the General Motors Fisher Body plant. A century ago, more than 7,000 workers poured into that giant facility. The fruit of their labors were 600 auto bodies every workday. During World War II, a staggering 14,000 workers contributed to the war effort when the plant was converted to make parts for tanks, guns and B-29 bombers.
The Fisher Body plant closed for good in 1983. But in 2022, after sitting fallow for four decades, a new building rose on that now-clean land every bit as important to Greater Cleveland as the plant that long ago helped make Cleveland one of the nation’s largest and most important cities.
The food distribution center for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank is as impressive as it is mammoth. At 197,000 square feet, it is Northeast Ohio’s largest kitchen. Its refrigerator/freezer seems the size of a football field.
In fiscal 2024, the food bank served 424,800 needy Greater Clevelanders, an astonishing figure when compared to the about 250,000 served in the years before the COVID pandemic. Of the 2024, about 121,000 were children and 96,200 seniors. The food bank employs 180, but central to fulfilling its lofty mission is a network of 16,000 dedicated volunteers – a number that excludes thousands of others who prefer to help anonymously.
The food bank rises early. By 8 a.m. one day recently, I watched an assembly line of young people (probably on spring break) preparing salads for seniors. Volunteers in trucks loaded food headed for area pantries. Staffers were making hot meals headed for needy places throughout the food bank’s six-county footprint. The food bank serves Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Ashland and Richard counties. Other food banks serve the Akron, Lorain, Canton and Youngstown areas.
Never once, have I heard anyone utter a critical word about these organizations. Nevertheless, food banks everywhere are entering a crisis mode caused by the breathtaking cruelty of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and, indirectly, the 77,302,580 Americans who returned Trump to power last November. Not all members of MAGA nation would support the administration’s starvation policies. But there is a straight-line connection from their votes last Nov. 4 to the harm that will surely be inflicted on so many of the nation’s hungry children.
The extent of the harm might not be known for several months, but Trump’s diabolical cuts in federal food programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have already created what Greater Cleveland Food Bank CEO Kristin Warzocha terms “an enormous challenge.”
Late last month, the USDA canceled a Cleveland delivery of 553,000 pounds of food valued at about $1 million. Another million pounds of federal food support scheduled for early in fiscal 2026 has also been canceled. There is hope some of that will be restored, but the near- and medium-term outlook for food banks everywhere is decidedly bleak.
In addition to the federal cuts, Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed state budget would cut fiscal 2026 funding for the Cleveland food bank from $32 million to $24.5 million. DeWine has long been a champion of food banks throughout the state. During COVID, he dispatched national guard troops to food banks across Ohio, easing disruptions in the food delivery process. Given that history, DeWine’s proposed funding cuts have left food bank supporters profoundly disappointed.
“We can’t adequately support our community without robust public support — from both the federal government and the State of Ohio,” said Warzocha.
About 46% of the food bank’s support comes from federal and state food donations. Local food retailers are largely supportive, as is Greater Cleveland’s historically generous philanthropic community. In 2024, 37,454 donors contributed to the food bank, 13,684 of them through the Harvest for Hunger campaign. That campaign alone raised $6.5 million, helping fund the food bank’s 2024 purchase and distribution of 13.6 million pounds of food.
The food bank’s new distribution center sits on 20 acres of the old Fisher Body plant that was donated by Independence Excavating Co. The company also built the food bank’s new building at a deep discount.
It takes a generous community to feed Greater Cleveland’s hungry. The people who live here do their part. But there’s precious little evidence the people running the country care much at all about the need to feed hungry children.
Everything about them reeks of inhumanity.
Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.
To reach Brent Larkin: [email protected]
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