Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:16 Today, we're taking a bit of a trip down memory lane to reflect on where we are one year since the Ohio national guard, soldiers and airmen that were deployed at Ohio food banks during the height of the pandemic were decommissioned and operations steady resolve ended. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 00:00:43 We'll go ahead and get right into our, our Q and a with some questions on our food bank mission. Uh, and sir, my first question will be for you. Um, like we mentioned earlier, it's been about one month since our soldiers and airmen stepped up almost to the day, uh, to support food banks across the state. They've worked tirelessly more than 73,000 man hours spent distributing more than 8 million pounds of food. Um, and believe it or not over 130,000 meal deliveries have been, um, given to those in need. I think seeing the gratitude on our people's facer is really all they need to keep going day to day, but what's your message to them?
Speaker 3 00:01:18 Well, well, my message to them is, is keep doing what you're doing. I couldn't be more proud of you. Uh, you've been on mission longer than anyone else. Uh, the first folks that we put out there in the field in support of our communities and, uh, all the feedback has been just off the charts. Uh, not only from the folks who work at the food banks, the people who run the food banks, but also from the people in the community who are in need of that food from the food banks, um, your work ethic has been completely unwavering. Um, your, your morale has been off the charts, but most importantly, the impact of that you're making in the communities is, is pretty significant. Uh, I have the opportunity, uh, daily couple times as data sit in on calls with the governor and some of the senior staff.
Speaker 3 00:01:59 And they talk about how critical these food banks are to sustaining people in our communities during this crisis. Uh, not only the funding for the food banks, but, but the workforce for the food banks and keeping those things going. Uh, governor DeWine actually had his wife, Fran DeWine sit in on one of the calls so that, um, she had visibility of what was going on because this is of great interest to her. So what you're doing matters, it does not go unnoticed and it's quite frankly and critical, critical to people's lives out there right now. So thank you for doing it. And I don't know how long we'll be at this, but it's, we're in this for the long haul.
Speaker 1 00:02:34 Hi, this is joy. Thanks for joining us for today's just to bite podcast episode, it's been one year since members of the Ohio national guard left food bank warehouses. After 16 months of deployment, if you had asked those of us in food banking a few years ago, before we'd ever heard the word coronavirus, if we ever thought we would be unloading trucks, packing, emergency food boxes or filling trunks with bags of groceries, alongside members of the Ohio national guard, we probably would've said, goodness, we hope not, because we'd know that would mean that Ohios were facing extreme food insecurity and widespread crisis. The likes of which we'd yet to experience yet one year since their mission at our food banks ended. It's now hard to imagine how we would've kept our doors open without them to be honest, you know, and as I reflect back, um, more than two years ago, we knew in those earliest days when COVID 19 was just starting to spread when stay at home orders, school closures were only vague rumors that people with low and moderate incomes and marginalized groups would be hit hardest by what was to come.
Speaker 1 00:03:53 And we knew because it happened immediately when events were canceled out of precaution, airline workers were laid off, hospitality staff were sent home or showed up to low wages and no tips. And at that time, most Americans had less than $400 to survive. You know, a single emergency to get through a car repair, a leaky roof, a high medical bill or lost wages. People were generally speaking, living paycheck to paycheck. And so when they lost one paycheck, that was enough to throw them into a crisis. And what's more like everyone else. We were all scared, scared by the threat of the virus for ourselves, our loved ones, our coworkers, our communities, while we are core parts of local disaster response plans at the food banks, we'd never responded to a global pandemic of this scale before. And we work in the kind of industry that can't simply close.
Speaker 1 00:05:01 It was never a thought in any of the minds of our food banks. The questions we had were only about how we were going to do it, how food banks and food pantries would adjust to serve more people without contributing to spread of the virus, whether to our clients, our staff, our older adult volunteers in particular, or our communities at large. So like others on the front lines, we stepped up food bankers took risks, personal protective equipment. Wasn't widely available mitigation strategies. Weren't well understood. That's for sure, but we knew we needed to try to keep the virus out of our warehouses limit foot traffic to minimize risk. Of course we knew we need to do just about everything we do differently for more people in need and without the groups of volunteers that we would normally count on from big corporate groups of volunteers that obviously weren't showing up because those employees were all being asked to stay at home, to mitigate, spread, staying at home, to be with their kids.
Speaker 1 00:06:05 As they were learning at school, going remote school volunteers, college groups, older adults, none of those folks were coming into our warehouses. And for the most part, our food banks also restricted access to those volunteer shifts completely because they wanted to again, mitigate the number of people moving in and out of the warehouses constantly and exposing frontline staff and national guard members to the virus. So our food bankers responded to all hands on deck calls to distribute food as safely as possible through emergency drive through distributions. We had to shift from a focus on choice pantries, where families can shop for the foods they need and prefer in a grocery store style setting to pre-pack boxes and bags of food that could be loaded into trunks or distributed by local partners, you know, under outdoor tents or from parking lots. We heard from our communities, of course, that people were isolated for their safety or because of illness and that we needed to innovate and figure out ways to deliver meals or groceries to high need households.
Speaker 1 00:07:19 With those barriers to access who were suffering from the virus or scared to be exposed at high risk for serious illness or death. The Ohio national guard was there through all of this with us. The soldiers and airmen were the hands and feet that worked alongside us to sort and pack foods, move pallets, load trucks, make deliveries and meet the need. And they also helped us overcome our logistical challenges, Institute, new safety and screening procedures, and operate as efficiently as possible to maximize resources and make the most impact. Here's what the guard response at our food banks meant to two Ohio food bankers.
Speaker 4 00:08:13 I'm Lee Trusdale. And I work at the food bank Inc in Dayton, Ohio, thinking back to our time with the national guard during the height of the pandemic, two words come to mind. The first word is relief. At that time, we had a staff of about 32 individuals and knowing what little we all knew about the pandemic, then we sent all but 12 individuals home. And we operated for two weeks, which is 12 individuals. And we were seeing as many as 500, some days, 700 households coming to us for help in a two hour timeframe. So having the national guard on site, they arrive with over 50 individuals just to our food bank. And it was a great relief to our team of 12 at the time, to have some extra folks on site to assist us during a critical time of need. And the second word that comes to mind is help, um, helping us meet a huge increase in need, helping us help individuals who were struggling for the first time. So a huge shutout in things to the national guard for all the work that they did for Ohio food banks.
Speaker 5 00:09:22 My name is Dan flowers. I'm the CEO of the Akron Canton regional food bank. The Ohio national guard had a unit at our food bank from March of 2020 until July of 2021. And during that time, the work that they did helping us respond to the COVID 19 pandemic was absolutely extraordinary from helping us kickstart a food delivery program that did over a thousand drops and 2020 alone to assisting our food distribution partners out in big food giveaways and parking lots all around the region. Their work was extraordinary. It was inspiring. I was really moved early on when they first arrived when we were all so very concerned about the dangers and risk that were associated with this mission to see the way that they faced it with such courage, the sacrifice that they made during their time here and the fun that they had along the way, they were wonderful young men and women under great leadership from master Sergeant Daniel Forney. We appreciate 'em so much, much love
Speaker 1 00:10:29 As for me, I can personally say that was one of the most humbling, but gratifying experiences of my career to coordinate and communicate with Ohio's ENT general and his leadership team, and to witness such a large scale, public private response to a public health crisis, coupled with extraordinary economic uncertainty. And of course we know we weren't the only, we certainly weren't the only frontline providers who were counting on the Ohio national guard response. They sacrificed so much for so many to help respond and make sure that the frontline providers and responders, especially our healthcare workers had more support and more resources to keep people cared for. There were several points in the Ohio national guard mission that we would've lost their support much too soon, if not for the actions of governor DeWine and Ohio's congressional delegation. In fact, every member of our congressional delegation signed onto a letter in July, 2020 urging the Trump administration to continue federal funding authority for the Ohio national guard response at food banks and other frontline providers.
Speaker 1 00:11:40 At that time, we all hoped the pandemic would be over in a few short weeks, but we still understood so little about the virus and the tragic loss of life and economic and household instability. It would continue to bring about. And it's still remarkable just to think about that incredible bipartisan response and how natural it was for every member of our de delegation, regardless of political etiology to come together and urge that we not let people down during this public health crisis. And that we keep up the support for the hands and feet who were making sure that people were fed.
Speaker 6 00:12:20 I've noticed what COVID is doing to people in general, let alone our community. And when I heard about this, I, without hesitation, I was, I need to be on this. I need to know I'm offering help and assistance to my neighbors, my friends, my families, and the people that I don't know, cuz we're all in this together. My
Speaker 7 00:12:40 Name's Barbara Hoffsteader, I'm the human resources director here at the Toledo, Northwestern, Ohio food bank in Toledo, Ohio. Having the national guard at the food bank, I think has really given our staff a more developed sense of community and just how many people are out there willing to help and how much support it really does take from our community to make this all happen. Uh, we have about a staff of 18 here. They give their all, they're very passionate about our mission of ending hunger and to see the soldiers for the national guard, come in and share that passion with us and uh, want to be there, um, to help us through this crisis just further gives us hope that everything's gonna be okay and we're gonna, we're gonna do our best to make it through this
Speaker 8 00:13:24 National guard are soldiers that are in the community that are here to do exactly what we're doing to step in, where there are shortages. Um, you know, if it's natural disaster or a virus going around the nation, it doesn't matter what it is. This is what we signed up for. It's what we swore an oath to. At the end of the day, we're here for our communities, half the soldiers here in this food bank in the last week and a half are from the Toledo area. So it's a lot more personal to them, um, that they're here helping out the community.
Speaker 1 00:14:02 The, you know, in the six months following the decommissioning of the Ohio national guard at our food banks. So in the latter half of calendar, year 2021 Ohio families with children began receiving monthly payments directly to their bank accounts. These advanced monthly payments of the expanded child tax credit slash child poverty and helped families afford food, housing and other basic needs. It's truly one of the most extraordinary public policies that we saw implemented during the pandemic and, and frankly over the history of our response to poverty and income inequality in our country. But unfortunately, Congress failed to continue those payments at the same time that inflation price, gouging supply chain issues and the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have hit family pocket books hard. And I would love this reflection to be different. In tone, I would love to be able to close this out with a celebration of how we made it through the impacts of the pandemic and we're firmly on the road to recovery one year later. But instead knowing that many economists are forecasting a recession just around the corner, knowing that many of our food banks are now facing food shortfalls, increasing need, declining donations, stagnant, volunteer support, and the impending end of pandemic related supports that have kept some families from seeking out our help. More often up to this point, I will close by saying that I hope decision makers can once again come together regardless of political ideology to make sure Ohioans are fed now. And in the difficult months ahead,
Speaker 1 00:15:58 I think I speak for all of Ohio's food banks and all of us here at the Ohio association of food banks. When I say that we will always hold in the highest esteem, Ohio national guard leadership, including agen general, major general John C. Harris Jr. The Ohio military reserve and the hundreds of soldiers and airmen that responded to the call to serve as well as their families who sacrificed alongside them. If you would like to honor them and help us keep up with our continued work throughout the state to make sure wholesome food is available to every Ohio. Please consider volunteering at your local food bank. Thank you. And we'll talk to you next time.
