How Coronavirus is Impacting Local Charitable Organizations

As Ohio approaches May 1, the date which Governor Mike DeWine said will mark the first steps of reopening Ohio’s economy, Ohio’s Department of Jobs and Family Services reports nearly 1 million Ohioans have filed for unemployment in the last two months.

As those Ohioans and millions of other Americans figure out how to adapt and stay on their feet, many are forced to turn to local charitable organizations for help. One local example is the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, which serves eight counties in Northeast Ohio.

Raven Gayheart, Public Relations Manager for the foodbank, said the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on their daily operations. Compared to March 2019, Gayheart said the foodbank distributed 30 percent more food this March and saw a 109 percent increase in first-time users of their food programs. Those increases in demand underscore a significant point Gayheart said the foodbank sees about the economic standing of the average Ohioan.

“We tend to think here at the foodbank that most people are a paycheck or two away from a food program,” Gayheart said. “So, we’re seeing that, that the lack of personal savings and safety net, we’re seeing that firsthand with people needing to access a food program.”

The foodbank usually has a distribution day on the fourth Thursday of every month at the facility in Akron where they hand out food to about 500 families. Gayheart said on March 26, that number jumped to almost 1,500, and about 60 percent of those were first-time visitors.

When unemployment numbers began rising, she said they were concerned about the inventory of the foodbank, as well as their financial capability to keep up with the demand and remain stocked and able to serve the people who would now be depending on them. However, Gayheart said the community has come through in a massive way to continue to support the foodbank, and that support is also coming from outside Ohio.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on April 2 that he was donating $100 million to Feeding America, the parent organization that the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is part of. Feeding America has a network of around 200 foodbanks across the country, which Gayheart said means Akron-Canton Regional is set to receive around $480,000.

At the foodbank’s stated average of four meals given out per dollar in donations they receive, that donation has the potential to generate almost 2 million meals. The foodbank’s capability to prepare meals in bulk is one reason why Gayheart said financial donations are more valuable than concerned residents donating canned goods, but the foodbank is appreciative of anything community members can contribute.

For people who are struggling and aren’t aware of the foodbank, Gayheart said their website has an option to search for food assistance programs by zip code to find the closest program to them.

In addition to the thousands of Ohioans who are becoming “food insecure” as a result of the coronavirus crisis, there is another population group in Ohio that is likely to continue to grow. Marcus Roth, communications director for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) said that as many Ohioans continue to live without income, some will be forced to turn to homeless shelters.

According to the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, as of January 2019, an estimated 10,345 Ohioans are experiencing homelessness on a given day, with almost 1,000 experiencing “chronic homelessness.”

COHHIO is primarily an advocacy organization for the homeless population in Ohio, communicating with local homeless shelters and taking that information to make lobby local, state and federal governments.

Roth said the homeless population is especially vulnerable to diseases like the coronavirus that are mostly spread through close interpersonal contact because of how many homeless people have to live in close quarters in shelters.

“What we realized early on when this whole crisis hit was that the homeless shelters are really woefully unprepared to handle something like this,” Roth said. “They’re large, congregate settings and are lacking in things like hand sanitizer, and bleach, and gloves and masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.”

The coronavirus is a particularly difficult thing for homeless shelters to deal with as it can create a cycle of people losing jobs because of the virus, moving into homeless shelters and getting sick, preventing them from returning to work, causing more people to lose jobs and the shelters to get more crowded, making social distancing nearly impossible.

Roth said the organization’s conversations with local shelters and different levels of government have become more frequent as they work in what Roth calls “crisis response mode” every day. Roth said he is personally working about 25 percent more hours per week at home than he did at the office, and he knows he is not the only one in the organization taking on an increased workload to help respond to the crisis.

He also said that increased workload is mostly spent lobbying the government to provide more relief assistance for what Roth fears could be a “flood of homelessness” as those who lost their jobs are unable to pay rent.

COHHIO and other homeless advocacy groups have been successful in some of their lobbying efforts so far, but Roth said there is still a lot of work to be done. Some federal funding has been allocated to programs like $4 billion for the Emergency Solutions Grant, which helps fund re-housing efforts to prevent shelters from becoming too crowded.

The funding Roth said COHHIO is pushing for hardest is an additional $100 billion in Rental Assistance efforts. Rental Assistance is a program that renters who are having financial difficulties apply to, and money flows from the program to their landlords in order to prevent evictions. Roth said they know Democratic leaders in the federal House are supportive of the program and hopes if it is included in a future bill, it could help millions of people stay on their feet until they go back to work.

Roth said he hopes the pandemic will show people that the homeless population should be treated differently, and the practice of “warehousing” them in large buildings should stop, focusing more on getting people back into permanent housing.

Knowing federal funding usually takes several weeks to arrive, COHHIO created the Pandemic Emergency Fund to send money directly to shelters. Roth said the money is mainly used to help shelters ensure they have basic necessities as well as gloves, masks and cleaning products to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

So far, Roth said around $850,000 has been given to shelters around Ohio, and he said people that can should donate to their local shelter, volunteer their time, or donate any extra masks or gloves.

Both Gayheart and Roth said it is important for people to do what they can to help those in need during the pandemic, whether that is donating to a homeless shelter or foodbank, or contacting their legislators to make sure their voice is heard when considering future coronavirus relief legislation.