Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: In celebration of Hunger Action Month, we sit down with two powerful hunger heroes within our Ohio network to reflect on the changes over the years. Our guest host, Jori Novotny, executive director here at the Ohio association of Food Banks, interviews Julie Chase Moorfield, president and CEO at Second Harvest Food bank of North Central Ohio. Join jury in a lighthearted episode getting to know Julie and her perspective of food banking as she celebrates her 20 year anniversary at Second Harvest Food bank of north central Ohio. We hope you enjoyed the hello.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us on our Just a Bite podcast. I'm so thrilled to be here with the Ohio association of Food Bank's board chair and the president and CEO of the Second Harvest Food bank of North Central Ohio, Julie Chase Moorfield. It's great to be with you, Julie.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: It's great to be with you.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: I've been the lucky beneficiary of Julie's wisdom and mentorship over the past little over a year as I've taken the helm from my predecessor, Lisa Hamler Fugit, and as executive director at the Ohio association of Food Banks. But I've long also learned from Julie's leadership as a food banker, not only here in Ohio, but across the country, throughout our national feeding America network. I've learned so much from her, and I'm so excited to spend a little time chatting with her today so that you can get some insight from someone who has arguably some of the longest tenure across the whole network and who has, because of that, lived through a lot of different challenges and dynamics and opportunities and changes in the world of food banking. So just really excited to chat today, and I just want to get started by inviting Julie to tell you a little bit more about her tenure at the Second Harvest Food bank of North Central Ohio, how she came to her career in food banking, and kind of what she's lived through over the past couple of decades.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: Thanks, joy. It's exciting to be here and talk with you. So I am celebrating. Last December, I celebrated 25 years in food banking. So I was with another food bank here in Ohio for the first five, six years of my career. But I've been here with the second harvest Food bank of north central Ohio for 20 years in September.
And food banking has changed so dramatically over the years.
Just the type of food that we distribute, the funding that we have, you know, our ability to meet the need within our community that has grown just exponentially. When I started with second harvest, we had six staff and we were distributing two and a half million pounds of food. This year, we have 40 staff, and we distributed 13 million pounds of food. But we were also able to do so much more in the community, to do snap outreach, to be talking about things like food as medicine and urban agriculture, and really discussing the food systems that we just weren't in a position to talk about before. And so we're in such a different place now and being able to address a multitude of needs of the neighbors that we're seeing coming to us for food assistance and how else we can help them.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Would you tell our listeners a little bit about your food bank region? I think, you know, we talk often about how we have twelve food banks that collectively serve people facing hunger in all 88 counties across Ohio. And I think your food bank is one that is, you know, interesting. And in some ways, it's representative of the varied demographics across Ohio. And then in some ways, it has its own unique economy because you're up here on the lake with a tourist driven economy, a farm worker economy. So if you would share a little bit more about what your region looks like.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: So we are proud to be in north central Ohio. We serve Lorain, Erie, Huron, and Crawford counties. Lorain being our largest county, Moore Industrial was based very much in the steel industry, the automotive industry. Much of that has left. So you have that industrial base. We have the tourism community of Erie county along the lakeshore and the islands. Cedar Point is a huge driver in that economy. See millions of people coming into Erie county every year, and then we have our rural communities. Crawford County, Huron County. Huron county is a huge ag community where a lot of our food through the Ohio Agriculture clearance program comes from our muck farmers down in Selleryville outside of Willard. So just a really diverse area. Crawford county is very rural. There's no interstate that runs through it. It's a very small county, so it really runs the gamut from the central city of Lorraine down to these small farm communities.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: It's really interesting. And as you've seen, the demographics of the people that you serve change over the past 20 years in this role. Have you also seen other demographics change? I'm wondering, for example, the partner agencies that you work with, have you seen shifts in the types of organizations that are involved in your work? Have you seen changes in volunteerism? Who's able to, to lead local food pantries? Who's able to join you in the warehouse to roll up their sleeves and get some food pack to distribute out to your region?
[00:05:32] Speaker C: It's always interesting when you look at our network of program partners, which we call partner charities, who has partnered with us 20 years ago is not who's partnered with us now. There are a handful of programs that have been with us for a long time. Most of those have paid staff to some degree, maybe just one, but have paid staff.
But there's always a bit of a churn with food pantries. It's always been very faith based. But as churches have consolidated over the last ten years just because of declining numbers at churches, we've moved to a lot of non traditional programs. It's part of the reason why we've partnered extensively with school systems, because those are after the churches. Those are the community partners. Those are the places that people trust. So we have a whole network of schools that we work with, doing mobile distributions, doing in school food pantries, because we know that that's a place that people trust and know to go to. But volunteers have changed. We're really fortunate here where we have a really large volunteer base. We have almost 3000 volunteers for us every year who donate about 25,000 hours. And we see that at our food pantry partners as well. But we also see the aging of that population. So that baby boomer silent generation that's been really committed to food pantries, especially during the pandemic, you know, retired, if you will, retired from their volunteer work. And there hasn't always been somebody to come in behind to take over those programs. So we are seeing a need, you know, in certain communities where we need to come in and establish a program, whether that's a mobile pantry, which we did down in Galleon, down in Crawford county, because there was no food pantry.
And in that mobile distribution, the residents, it's the residents of Galleon who are coming to that. It's not coming from a wider area, it's really from that community. It's because there just wasn't a food pantry there anymore.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
Well, as you think back across, you know, let's say you started in this role here at the food bank with six staff, as you said, let's see, in 2004.
So pre great recession food banking looked a lot different than you live through the very long, prolonged recovery coming out of the great Recession. And then, of course, through our collective Covid response from the National Guard joining you here in your warehouse to what the aftermath of the pandemic continues to evolve to look like for each of us as we work toward maintaining access to food in really unprecedented times. And that is a cliche word, but it is really, truly unprecedented for us across the state and including in your region. So, you know, as you think about that path. And here we are, ready to embark on another state budget season. The state of Ohio passes its operating budget every two years, and that's largely the driver of most appropriations, as well as a majority of policy choices that our state makes. And we're long time public private partners with the state of Ohio. We also know that, you know, we're approaching a legacy budget for Governor DeWine.
I know that he wants to leave a strong impact in his last operating budget, and we have been proud to be partners with his administration over the past six years. You know, what's top of mind for you as you're thinking about how we can work with our partners in the General assembly and in the DeWine administration to make sure that Ohioans who are facing hunger don't have to suffer the consequences of not having access to the nutritious food they need. And what are some of the messages that you plan on conveying to our partners at the state heading into this season?
[00:09:18] Speaker C: One of the things I think is most important about this program is just how innovative it is. You know, going back over 2025 years, when this program started, there are still very few programs across the country that operate in this way. That is this public private partnership with farmers, growers, and producers where we are able to leverage the state dollars to provide food to the neighbors that need assistance and also work with our farmers and growers and making sure that our food system stays strong. And that is one of the most important things that we see, that we're able to do both things because farmers want to feed people. And they love this program. They love being part of it, love that they can, you know, they'll see their fresh produce, you know, out at a distribution, and sometimes it's in the town that they live in, they'll be able to see it in helping their friends and neighbors. And that's what's so important about this. And it just strengthens the fabric of Ohio. And the more that we can, we can help with that, and the more that we can shore up those resources, you know, it makes the state stronger. You know, it makes the people that we serve whole.
There's just no better program than this.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Amazing. And I imagine that later today we're going to be taking a tour of your warehouse with some elected official partners. And, you know, I know that right now we're here in middle of August, we're seeing some great Ohio grown, Ohio produced product that will be coming into your warehouse. Just a reminder to folks when we talk about the Ohio Agricultural clearance program and the Ohio Food program that our state of Ohio partners have funded and supported for many general assemblies and many administrations. We're talking about making sure that we salvage surplus, an unmarketable product that would otherwise go to waste. And you can hear the passion for that model when Julie talks about it, because we do pride ourselves not only, of course, on making sure that people don't suffer the indignity of hunger and that they can think about a week from now, a month from now, rather than their hungry belly today, but also that we're part of a resilient local food supply chain. And that's really something that I've admired your leaning into and rooting your food bank's focus in as well. So let's shift a little bit to some of our priorities for the federal farm bill, because that's where we've been able to see some of this innovative work evolve. We know that we have long been strong advocates for the supplemented supplemental nutrition assistance program, or SNAP, because we know that that's the first line of defense against hunger. So let's start there. You know, you're a food bank, like most of our food banks, are partners in SNAP outreach and helping to raise awareness and make connections to that program for eligible Ohioans.
And you do so in a really interesting and innovative way. So I'd love to hear more about that partnership that you have and also just to hear more about why I you believe, as a food bank leader, that advocating for a strong SNAP program is important policy position for us.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: So we have been really fortunate to have a great relationship with Lorraine County Community College for many, many years. We work with them on a food pantry that's at the campus called Commodore's Cupboard. And then we also work closely with them on doing Snap outreach for their students. So Lorain county is a participant in SNaP to skills. So as people are accessing the services at the college to complete their degree, they can also work with job and family services to use those hours to be able to receive SNaP, because the school really looked at how many students are struggling with food insecurity, and it's community college, so there's a wide breadth of students that come there. But when they found out that it was almost 65% of students were struggling with food insecurity, they recognized, doctor Ballinger recognized that there was things that needed to be done. So we've been partnering with them for many years on that, and they help get students signed up for SNAP and other community members as well. And we've been fortunate this year to be able to expand our Snap outreach to some of our more rural communities. So in Erie and Huron counties, we have a new staff person who's working on SNAP and benefit outreach, not only connecting people to snap, but also to other benefits that exist at job and family services and. And just being able to be that consistent approach. And we're actually going to expand that team again come the winter. We're going to add another person here in Lorain county who ideally will be bilingual.
Many people don't recognize that Lorain county has a really significant latino population and many who do not speak English as their first language. And so that is a barrier for service to us and something we're very mindful of here.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Fantastic. So when we're thinking about what food makes up the supply that exists in your warehouse today, you know, I have a sense of the statewide pie chart we've got.
In 2023, it was roughly 40% of the food coming in statewide was donated food.
Contrary to what folks probably imagine, most of that donated food is coming from manufacturer and retail donations. Some of it is product that was in a test environment that didn't go to market or there were label errors. There's maybe some close to code product that we can move quickly through our network, et cetera. Then we have, and of course, we also have generous local food drives that bring in additional product that we're very grateful for. About 18% to 20% of all of the food in 2023 statewide that came in was actually privately purchased product.
That is an extraordinarily high percentage for what that pie chart looks like. For us as a network, that means that we're raising dollars as much and as fast as we can to keep buying enough food to feed people in need. But it's not a sustainable model for us. We know that. And then the remaining 40% or so is made up of state funded food programs and federal commodity programs. So, you know, another priority for us in the federal farm bill, of course, is the emergency food Assistance program, or TFAP.
We are seeing basically the way TFAP is structured. We get an appropriation, and then obviously the federal government needs to go out and procure food. That is a market support program. So it is also clearing the market of product that doesn't have a retail home, so that we're supporting our agricultural partners.
But we are very reliant on those products being consistently available in our warehouse. We've struggled over the past several years with highs and lows and really just a lot of uncertainty.
Been very grateful for several one time band aids that have again kept our heads above water. Just like the partnership that the state of Ohio used with their ARPA dollars to get us a little bit more food for a while, that helped us keep our head above water. We've seen the same thing from TFAP and our partners at USDA and in Congress, and we're approaching an upcoming year with projections that are showing much less TFAP commodities are on order. So would you just talk a little bit about why those TFAP commodities, to you, are such an important backbone of how we meet food needs for our neighbors?
[00:16:55] Speaker C: One of the things that I think with TFAP, and that isn't always well known, it's like, those are the center of the plate items. Those are the fruits, the vegetables, the protein items. That's how we're able to distribute a lot of that food. We're a small food bank, or medium sized food bank, if you will. So when it comes to TFAB, the entitlement dollars that we get, that actually only makes up about two and a half percent of the food that we distribute. And the rest of it comes from bonus and from the other programs that you described, these band aid approaches, which got us up to that 20% of federal.
So we're deeply concerned about what that looks like for us, because when the bottom drops out of that, then we're not seeing ground beef and fish and lamb and all of those protein items that our families that we serve so desperately need that's so expensive in the store. One of the big challenges we've seen over the last couple of years with the increase in food costs, and I use ground beef as an example. So if we were purchasing a truckload of ground beef right now, it's almost $170,000. If you look back a few years ago, it's $120,000. So the dollars that we're getting, I mean, it's the same dollars, but they're just nothing. They're not purchasing the same food. And we all see that. Everyone goes to the grocery store. You see the costs have increased, and, you know, that has just compounded our ability to buy food. And so when we, before the pandemic, we were purchasing maybe a half a million, $600,000 worth of food. You know, now we're. Every year we're budgeting $2 million. It's a third of our operating budget that purchased food, because we know that we just can't count on donated food. Donated food is flat in 2019, we received just a little over 4 million pounds of donated food. In this past fiscal year, we received just over 4 million pounds of donated food. It's not decreased, but it's flat. It's not keeping pace with what else we're seeing. So it's becoming a smaller and smaller percentage, and it's a struggle to try to make that up. And we continue to see such rising need. You know, as we ended up our fiscal year in June this year, we distributed the lowest amount of food per service incident that we have in the last six years. So we're seeing increased need and less food to be able to meet that need.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Definitely worst case scenarios colliding for us in the food bank world right now, because we know that ultimately it doesn't serve anyone, not a single person in the entire chain and the entire economy at the state, local, or federal levels, to sacrifice access to food to balance a budget or to keep spending down. We know that investing in access to food and making sure that that is a core part of how we respond to anyone facing inflationary pressure, disability or illness, lack of access to reliable, consistent wages, lack of access to childcare, you name it, that food, access to food is necessary to be able to engender any other positive thing in a person's life. So, you know, and part of, we talked about this a little bit earlier, but I'd love to hear more because when you talk about this, I get so excited. Julie, I think, you know, Ohio has for, since I know of, been its number one economy has been agriculture. And, you know, there is discussion that that's soon to change. Agriculture might be at number two these days with some of our tech friends coming into the state, but agriculture nonetheless, is truly the backbone of so much of Ohio's economy. And we all felt it, and we were still feeling it when we went out to buy our own groceries, if we were lucky to do so in our grocery stores, to see shelves bare, missing products from the aisles, how quickly those local and regional supply chains can deteriorate, and how really reliant we are on our partners in agriculture who choose to get up every day and keep the food moving through the system.
So we want to be a part of that, right? I mean, I talk about it like this.
If you're thinking about 1015 years down the road and we haven't done right by our food supply chain partners, then food insecurity looks a lot different. And it's not about affordability or even accessibility, but it's about the existence of nutritious, wholesome food nearby.
So I just would love to hear about all the exciting things, tell our listeners a little bit more about how you're living into your role as a food bank in that food supply chain.
[00:21:47] Speaker C: So a few years ago, we started an initiative called Food forward Lorain with Loraine County Public Health. And later, the city of Lorain came on as a partner. And we looked at Lorain county specifically and where we wanted to focus in on, and we focused in on the city of Lorain because there's a lot of deep seated issues in the city of Lorain, and felt like that was the place where we could really make the most impact. Of course, we'd love to do the whole county, but that's not realistic. And so we focused on the city of Lorraine.
And we have three pillars as part of that. One is economic development. One is food, is medicine, and one is transportation and technology. And it's all based around food access. How do we increase food access within the city of Lorraine? Because we see that as a significant issue for the residents of the city.
Not a lot of grocery stores, a lot of convenience stores, not a lot of fresh produce. And so one of those pillars, which is around urban agriculture in economic development, we've worked as a partnership to secure a USDA urban agriculture planning grant to look at the city of Lorain and where urban agriculture could exist. Now, a lot of people read that as a community garden, and it's not community gardening. This is actual urban agriculture for sale. So we work with our partner, solidarity urban Farms, to, they are part of the LFPA, the Ohio can program, where we're actually getting produce directly from them. It's actually, with that specific program, it's going to our WIC offices, where we're actually providing produce boxes to our WIC, our WIC partner, to help encourage the moms to come in to get their cards reloaded. So it's a bit of a unique program, very well received, so appreciative of the produce that they come and they receive. And so it just makes it that much better of an experience for them. But they also get to see produce that's grown in the city of Lorraine. And it's beautiful, and it's amazing, and we want to keep that going.
So part of the grant is to look at the entire city and look at where urban agriculture could exist, looking at things like zoning and how we can change that. Most cities are not set up to do urban agriculture. So how do we zone it differently? How do we allow things like Beesden? How do we allow them to change the zoning on different plots of land. If they've procured land from the land bank, how do we work with them on that water and electricity and all of those things? It's a really exciting opportunity to reimagine all these areas within a city that has really seen a lot of industry leave, including the steel mill, including shipbuilding, the Ford plant. I mean, there's just a lot of things that have left the city of Lorraine. So how do we look at the changing that dynamic and changing, you know, what's possible, you know, and thinking about things like controlled environment farming, you know, that's happened in other parts of our service area, and that can be locally grown produce that can help the community, but also that can be sold, that can create jobs. There's a lot of programs. We work with Oberlin College. We work with Laurie County Community College. There are programs there that are looking at urban agriculture, and the students need somewhere to take those skills to put them into practice. And so there's a lot of exciting things happening. But we're also excited about everything that's happening with LFPA and Ohio can, and that ability to work with these farm partners that are, they're smaller. They can't get those federal contracts. They, you know, they're not even big enough to work with the state ag clearance program, but they're small producers, and they want to do more, and they want to be able to provide that food, and they will continue to be the backbone. There's just a lot of excitement. There's a new generation that we see coming into this farming. You know, a lot of people who have been doing farming have been doing it for a really long time. But these smaller growers are new. They're excited. They want to do different things, and we need to help foster that because, you know, as you said, food access in the food system is critically important, and we have to figure out how to evolve.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Oh, I love hearing all of the cultivating of possibility, you know, and we are so, and I'm perhaps one of the most guilty of this as we stare down kind of where the access to food in our warehouses will look over the next six to twelve months. And it's such a risk to fall back into a scarcity mindset, but to instead embrace that. Like, we can do this differently and bigger and better by thinking innovatively, working across sectors, getting people excited about what the future of access to food looks like and how they can be a part of that. And there's so many different ways people can plug in which is what makes me excited about what y'all are doing here. And you talked about the WIC produce boxes and how you've connected this USDA funded local food purchase assistance program, which, by the way, we need permanent funding authorization for, to continue with your WIC program to help encourage continued participation among eligible moms and infants in that program. And then I know that you've also been thinking a lot about your aging population locally. And how do you, you know, rather than being in sort of a sit back and push model, if you can get here, here's the food you're really thinking about. How do you meet people where they're at? And you've gone to great lengths to do that. Would you talk to us about your home delivery model?
[00:27:19] Speaker C: Yeah, we are so excited. The volunteer relations team here has done just a tremendous amount of work. So we have about 70 to 80 volunteers we work with, and this has grown over time. It actually started with our national guard soldiers. When people couldn't come here to pick up their senior food box, we started delivering with them. And also we had some Ohio state highway patrolmen who are kind enough to deliver as well. And we wanted to continue that program because we knew that the seniors just didn't have the transportation. So this, again, is part of our food forward. Lorraine, work. How do we create transportation? How do we create access? So our volunteer relations team worked and trained up all these volunteers. They go out in pairs and they deliver food boxes directly to seniors out into Loraine county, some into Erie county. And we actually have a rural program that started as well down in Huron county, down in the new London area, where we have a group that we work with, and they also do direct delivery to seniors out in rural communities. Just tremendously well received. So not only are they delivering the food, and they usually have the same. The volunteers usually have the same route, so they see the same people every month, but they've established relationships, you know, and there's a little bit of check in, too. They get to see people face to face, you know, and they appreciate, you know, being able to deliver the food. And the seniors are so grateful to be able to get that food. So it's just been an amazing program. And I don't know, we didn't even realize how unique it was until we've had some visitors from around the country, from other food banks who've come and, you know, been really amazed at, you know, the ability to leverage these volunteers. But we just have a great team that works with our volunteers and just wonderful volunteers who are willing to go the extra mile, literally.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: That's amazing. I mean, I think there are so many people who, frankly, as food banks, we've traditionally been reliant on partnerships with our corporate partners, our institutions of higher education, who will send large groups of folks in to help pack boxes and sort food and plug into opportunities that we have. And we had to take a second look at how are we going to refocus our efforts on volunteerism coming out of a world during the pandemic that by necessity put a damper on opportunities to engage in volunteerism. So as we think about, I think about the challenges that a lot of our neighbors face are challenges that we all face about. Is there time left in the day when you've gone through working your one or two jobs that you've cobbled together to make sure that you can afford most of your basic household necessities? If you've got kids, you're taking care of them as best you can. You're maybe caregiving for an older adult or a loved one who's ill or disabled. You're trying to be in community. You're trying to do all the things and juggle all the things. And how do we make volunteerism exciting?
And it's something that really feels people up, that gives them a chance to give back and also, you know, be filled up and have their cup renewed. So it's exciting. And, you know, I know. Similarly, you work. I know you have a particular connection and passion to school aged work, school aged kids as well as educators, and knowing that children really need access to food, as well as many wraparound services, of course, to be able to thrive and to learn year round. So I'd love to hear about some of your out of school time work and also how you partner throughout the year with your local school districts.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: Yes, I feel very strongly about education. I'm married to a longtime educator and have two school age kids who, and you see how much that impact is, you know, the ability of the schools to be able to deliver food to children on a regular basis. You know, we, as a food bank, you know, are a huge proponent, you know, of the universal school meal program, you know, that making that free for all students in the state. We saw what an impact that had during COVID when kids didn't have to worry anymore and the parents didn't have to worry. Couldn't tell you how many parents I talked to who said, that's the difference for me, that I didn't have to pay for my kids meals you know, now I can afford other things. Housing costs are through the roof. I know, across state, across the country, but definitely within our area, we see that as a huge need. We did community roundtables over the summer, and that came up consistently. You know, food insecurity came up as a consistent need, but housing was right there with it. The amount of food money that families are paying for housing or even if they can get housing, has become a huge, huge issue. And especially for families with kids, you know, they need that stability to be able to have, you know, a good educational experience, you know, and that's unfortunately not what we're seeing. You know, we've partnered with school districts to not only work with them during the school year, but also outside of the school year. So during the summer months to make sure that kids have food, we have a lot of partners that do summer food service, meal programs. You know, our library programs have been amazing partners with summer food service. You know, we just see this, this community support around, making sure that kids have the food that they need.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Well, we've talked a lot about all the ways that you're leading here at your food bank, but you've also been leading for several years now as the board chair for the Ohio association of Food Banks. And I and my team have so much gratitude for your willingness to step up and give of yourself, to play that role when, frankly, you have enough going on. You know, keep keeping the food moving in and out and all of these exciting, innovative partnerships, and you're in your region moving. So first of all, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And even though you know you can't, although I've insisted you could, you said you can serve as board chair forever, you'll continue to be an engaged voice and a supporter at the board table as, as a statewide network because you just have shown that you really understand that we can do a lot of things better together. So I just would love if you would talk a little bit about what, from your perspective as a board chair of our statewide network, what are we doing better together than we can do on our own? How is it going to positively impact Ohioans facing hunger?
[00:33:46] Speaker C: Well, first and foremost, I'm very proud to serve as the board chair. You know, with my colleagues around the state. There's just so much knowledge and so many wonderful leaders around the state, and so that we are able to come together to really coalesce on these issues is so critical, you know, and we're so proud of the group that is down at the state level, you know, you and everyone else, you know, running the organization and being able to be that voice in the state, it makes all the difference in the world, having that cohesive voice, you know, being able to make sure that there's a clear understanding of what our needs are across the state, you know, and that despite the fact that there's differences, you know, our food bank is different than the freestore food bank in Cincinnati, but yet there are commonalities amongst everything that we do, and we can talk about that, and we can, you know, most importantly, and this is what I believe, is that, you know, we're a voice for our neighbors. That's our job. Our job is to make sure that we can be their voice and we can be their advocate in making sure that that doesn't get lost, because the state legislature, it's challenging, you know, there's a lot of competing interests out there, and we have to be that voice and we have to be carrying that message. And I think, you know, we continue to elevate that work and especially, you know, bringing in voices, you know, of our neighbors who are facing the issue of hunger. You know, we're proud today we're hosting a group. We have a neighbor roundtable that's actually happening later today, you know, where we're getting to talk directly, you know, and making sure and checking in to say, are we doing the right things? Are we hitting, you know, the right issues, the things that are most important to you, you know, and that is something, you know, that we continue to do better and better every time. But, you know, the person facing hunger is at the center of everything that we do.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Couldn't agree more. And speaking of speaking up and raising voices in solidarity with and on behalf of our neighbors, September is hunger action month. It's also Julie's 20th year as president and CEO of the second Harvest food bank in north central Ohio. So we'll be celebrating that as well. But hunger Action Month is an opportunity for us to focus on raising awareness among the broader community about how they can plug in and get involved wherever they're at, meet them where they're at, extend an opportunity for them to be part of saying, no, no one deserves hunger today or tomorrow or ever. And here's how we can be solution oriented people to prevent that from happening. So what calls to action do you have for our listeners who might just need a spark? Maybe they need a spark from someone who given me lots of sparks. So give them some ideas on how they can get started taking action this year.
[00:36:36] Speaker C: I think that the biggest area that people can jump into really easily is just volunteering. I know.
And not just at your local food bank, although we'd love to see you here at second harvest thinking about the local food programs, the hot meal programs. They're looking for new volunteers. They're looking for new people. And I will tell you, you will get more out of it than they get from you, because we see that with our volunteers, especially the ones who are delivering the senior boxes, they get so much out of it. They feel so great about being able to connect with people. And I think that's one thing that we've lost during COVID and we all struggle with that, is that creating those community connections, get back out there and talk to people and engage in the community and donate a couple hours and take your kids. And it's just a great experience, and that's the easiest way. But, you know, we also want to see people advocate. If this resonates with you, if this issue of food insecurity resonates with you, then be an advocate. You know, start helping us figure out how to talk to legislators. You know, how to talk to, you know, not just our state legislature, our federal legislators, but your county commissioner, you know, your local mayor. You know, let's raise this as an issue. Let's talk about why it's important. Why does it matter to a little town, you know, that there's food insecurity. It's like, let's try to talk about what steps we can take to connect people and create, again that sense of community.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: You heard it from Julie. Get out there, get connected, and we'll make it easy for you to plug into opportunities all throughout hunger action month and beyond. So please check the show notes for more opportunities to get engaged and follow along on second harvest social media pages, as well as the Ohio association of Food Banks to make sure that you take every opportunity you can to plug in and join us in preventing hunger and hardship for Ohioans in need. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Julie.
[00:38:35] Speaker C: Thanks, Jorite.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: We again want to thank you for listening to our episode. A big thanks to Jori Novotny for being our guest host today, and to Julie Chase Moorfield, not only for her time on the podcast, but her years of dedicated service to ending hunger in Ohio. As a reminder, September is Hunger Action Month, a yearly national campaign to raise awareness of hunger in the United States and to encourage action to address poverty, inequality, and injustices so we can end hunger for good. To learn more on how you can get involved, please visit our website, ohiofoodbanks.org to see our Action center, which will also be linked in the show notes. Thank you and happy Hunger Action Month.
