Post-Holiday Food Blues

Post-Holiday Food Blues

During the Christmas holidays we are blessed with much giving and receiving of presents and good cheer.  Accompanying this is our enjoyment of a lot of good holiday food at each other’s homes and at restaurants and other gatherings.  One may assume the needs of the poor are covered for awhile thanks to organizations like Salvation Army and Toys For Tots coupled with food bank and food pantry programs.  If only this were true. Unfortunately, January and February produce the lowest level of food donations to food banks each year. Call it the Post-Holiday Food Blues. For Ohio this becomes part of a perfect storm as we are consistently one of the top ten states for food-insecure households who had to get food from a pantry one or more times per year.

In addition, Ohio ranks high for numbers of families forced to skip meals or eat less because they didn’t have enough money or other resources to put food on their table.  Worst of all is the impact on our children. Despite Child Advocates constant calls for more food programs to help Ohio’s poor children, USDA data shows we are making little progress in this area.  Our Market Street Pantry serves as many as 1,000 Clients a month so we continue to need your food donations and your help as a Market Street Volunteer.

For further information contact Mary Lucas-Miller at lucasmiller18@hotmail.com.