Hunger Network in Ohio

Creating Awareness - Seeking Solutions

HungerNetOhio #6.7:
Overcoming the “B” Crisis and “T” Stigma

"Email conversations about changing conditions causing hunger in Ohio and around the world"

TO	Advocates for reducing hunger
FROM	Hunger Network in Ohio
ABOUT	Last ditch initiatives for fiscal sanity

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported yesterday that unemployment rose from 9.7 percent in March to 10.2 percent in April, putting Ohio's rate into the double digits and forecasting continued economic decline in the State.

More evidence of pain came earlier this week when the State Office of Budget and Management announced that the shortfall for the current budget period that ends June 30th will reach $912 million. Cost-saving measures and debt restructuring will cover about $150 million of that but the rest probably will come from the same rainy-day fund that legislators had hoped to tap to balance the next two-year budget. But every dollar used to repair the current budget is being taken away from the plan for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years.

That's why current Ohio Senate Finance Committee budget hearings are so critical. At a time without relief in sight from ever widening economic collapse, public officials feel forced--contradictorily--into a formula for triage among those essential human service programs which are designed to help those in greatest need.

Facing a shortfall that could reach $3 billion, the Committee is expected by next Wednesday to announce amendments for slashing $1 billion from the two-year, $54 billion budget bill passed by a prematurely optimistic Substitute House Bill 1 received from the House. The rest of the cuts will be left to a joint House-Senate conference committee which will convene in early June. They will have just a few weeks left to reconcile their differences in time for the Governor's signature and start of the next fiscal year in July.

Alarmed by the hyper-partisan clash, chasm in vision, and air of despair currently hovering over the Statehouse, The Campaign to Protect Ohio's Future has jumped into the fray. This coalition of health, human services, primary and secondary education and higher education organizations is seeking to protect Ohio's most vulnerable citizens. It is committed to adequately funding vital services through a responsible budget with a primary priority of meeting basic human needs and providing sufficient funds to invest in Ohio's future.

The board of the Hunger Network in Ohio last week joined forces with a growing list of over 50 groups to support the Campaign's basic principles and encourage broader consideration for addressing this crisis. We invite others to endorse these values and unite in common witness for bringing greater sanity to the outcome of these discussions.

More Information

2 Cents-a-Meal Pamphlet

Plenty & Scarcity October 2008 - Election Choices

Click here to see Plenty - 5.29J.08

Can Wrapper

Ending Hunger in Ohio Fact Sheet

HUNGER ISSUES FOR 2009

The Hunger Network in Ohio--in cooperation with the overall Vote Out Poverty campaign, Ohio Anti-hunger Task Force, and our ongoing collegial network of human service advocates--will work cooperatively within five principal areas (Hunger, Health care, Homelessness/Housing, Education, and Employment). Recognizing the hunger implications within each of these poverty-related indices, urgent food assistance will remain our primary focus.

In response to a severely declining economy and financial deficiencies among Ohioans, we will dedicate ourselves to especially three dimensions of hunger relief:

• Availability of Emergency Food. Advocating for increasing state support for the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbank system, participation in gleaning in conjunction with the Society of St. Andrew’s, generating support for church and community emergency feeding programs.

• Spread of Benefit Banks. Working especially with individual church and ecumenical groups throughout the state to develop expertise in food pantry workers for helping clients to obtain public sources for which they, through their economic disparity, qualify.

• Supplemental Food Assistance. Promoting federal increase in the amount and availability of “food stamps,” WIC, community meals programs.

Electronic Public Policy Network: HungerNetOhio

In order to make information about hunger-related issues more readily available, the Hunger Network in Ohio recent initiated an Electronic Public Policy Network. It is designed to be in touch with interested persons as soon as public policies are introduced and prime opportunities are available to influence legislators. It also offers background information and reference to parallel efforts of other organizations as well as invites comments, questions, and interaction.

Because of increasing restrictions on this way of communicating these days, we need to be sure that you want to receive our messages and we need a request directly from you. So please, email us immediately at info@hungernetohio.org if you are interested in becoming part of "HungerNetOhio."

View Past Issues of HungerNetOhio.

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Contact Bob Erickson, Director

Find your Congressperson at the Ohio Legislative Directory http://ohio.gov/GovState.stm#ohleg

"Oh, God, to those who have hunger, give bread;
and in those who have bread, create hunger for justice."
Latin American Prayer

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Hunger Network in Ohio
82 East 16th Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43201
Phone: 614-424-6203
E-mail: info@hungernetohio.org