The Greater Cleveland Food Bank (GCFB) knows we could not serve nearly as many people without the generous contributions of our supporters, but this year, that feels truer than ever. The GCFB, our partners and our neighbors are all facing the increasing cost of food, and the support of people like you helps ensure we can sustain much-needed hunger relief efforts for our neighbors across Northeast Ohio.
The average Ohioan is currently facing an additional $490 in monthly transportation, energy, food and shelter expenses as a result of inflation. These extra expenses can have an extraordinary impact on many families, particularly senior citizens and individuals with disabilities living on fixed incomes. As a result, we are seeing more people turn to the GCFB and our partners for support, including some who have never before relied on emergency food assistance.
However, as the GCFB strives to serve the hundreds of thousands of individuals and families who rely on our services to make ends meet, we are working to navigate increases in food and fuel costs as well as decreases in government support. Below are just a few ways our work has been impacted by supply chain issues and inflation:
Despite these challenges, the GCFB has been able to sustain our high level of distribution. Thanks to the generous support of our community, we have been able to provide 30.7 million pounds of nutritious food to more than 266,800 people so far this fiscal year. We are truly grateful that our community continues to stand with us in the fight against hunger to help make this important work possible. Thank you for being a part of this effort and for helping to ensure that everyone in our communities has the nutritious food they need every day.
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank (GCFB) wants to thank you once again for your support in the fight against hunger. Unfortunately, we know that nearly one in six people and more than one in four children are at risk for food insecurity within the six counties we serve. Together with our network of program partners, volunteers, advocates and supporters like you, we are working to provide increased access to nutritious food for the hundreds of thousands of Northeast Ohioans who worry about where their next meal will come from.
Your support is critical to helpings us meet the ongoing needs of our community – particularly now as the GCFB, our partners and clients are all facing the increased costs of food. Currently, we are seeing food costs hit record highs and we are experiencing the largest price increase in 31 years. One extreme example is a case of canned green beans. In 2019, it cost the GCFB just over $9 to purchase one case. Now, that same case costs over $19.
The GCFB is also having to purchase considerably more food to meet our community’s increased needs as some of our grocery partners and retail food donors have not been able to donate as much product during the pandemic. Your support helps ensure we can continue to purchase and distribute more of the nutritious food our neighbors need.
Thanks to the generous support of our community, we have been able to provide more than 14.7 million pounds of food through January of our FY2022 (October 1, 2021 – September 30, 2022). Furthermore, of all the food we distributed during this time, 8.3 million pounds was fresh produce and nutritious perishable product to help support the health and well-being of our neighbors.
These incredible distribution efforts have helped us to serve more than 187,800 people so far this fiscal year. And, we anticipate that we will serve hundreds of thousands more children, families, seniors and individuals before the year ends. We simply could not serve this many people without the generous support of individuals like you. Thank you again for joining us in the fight against hunger!
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Every year, hundreds of thousands of children, families, seniors, and individuals turn to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank (GCFB) and our partners for emergency food assistance. In order to meet the significant needs of our neighbors, we must rely on the generous support of our community. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of many volunteers, advocates, partners and the support of individuals like you, we have been able to provide nutritious food and many other critical resources to support the health and well-being of our community.
The GCFB recently completed our FY2021, and we are pleased to say that together with our community, we served more than 343,000 unduplicated people. While many individuals are going back to work and children are going back to school, it is clear that hundreds of thousands of individuals and families are still feeling the impacts of the pandemic. We recognized that the people we served this year were making significantly more visits to our distributions than last year, which tells us that our neighbors are depending on the GCFB even more to help make ends meet. Your generous support plays a pivotal role in helping us sustain our critical programs and service offerings for our neighbors across Northeast Ohio.
Below are just a few additional highlights from our FY2021 that your support helped make possible:
While we know there is still much more work to be done, we have made great strides to help increase access to nutritious food and build a more food secure future for our community. Thank you again for joining us in the fight against hunger and for all you do to support our neighbors!
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank (GCFB) is so grateful that you wanted to join us in the fight against hunger! Even as many Ohioans are beginning to resume the activities and routines they enjoyed prior to COVID-19, for many others, the challenges of the pandemic remain a reality. We expect that clients will continue to access our services at elevated levels for years to come as our community slowly recovers from the economic impacts of COVID-19. During these challenging times, it is critical that the GCFB can be a reliable resource for all those who need us.
The generosity of individuals like you helps ensure that we have the necessary resources to sustain our expanded operations for the hundreds of thousands of individuals and families who continue to rely on our essential hunger relief efforts. Through April of our FY2021 (October 1, 2020 – September 30, 2021), the GCFB and our partners have served more than 346,000 unduplicated individuals. This is still a significant increase compared to the number of people we were serving before the onset of COVID-19. For reference, we served a little more than 300,000 people during our entire FY2019 – the last completed fiscal year before the pandemic.
Below please find a few other accomplishments we have been able to achieve through April of our FY2021 with the support of generous donors like you:
With the urgent needs of so many individuals facing diminished food resources, stretching limited incomes and living from paycheck to paycheck, we must remain relentless in our commitment to safely get more food into the hands of those that need it most. We want to thank you for helping to make this important work possible, and for helping support the ongoing needs of our neighbors facing food insecurity.
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As the Greater Cleveland Food Bank marks the one-year anniversary of providing emergency response efforts for Northeast Ohio, we still recognize the urgency to help support the thousands of individuals and families who have been so deeply impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Knowing the challenges that some families face, we are incredibly grateful for the way our community continues to rise to the occasion to help support our neighbors. I want to take this opportunity to thank you once again for helping to support our hunger relief efforts during this critical time and for helping us to serve more children, families, seniors and individuals than ever before.
From March 15, 2020 through February 28, 2021, we have served more than 163,000 households through our emergency response efforts. Of those households served, more than 55,600 were new households, seeking assistance from us and our partners for the first time. During this last year, the support of our community has also helped us provide more than 218,600 backpacks for children, each containing six child-friendly meals, and more than 530,000 emergency food boxes filled with fresh produce and shelf-stable food to help support families during this challenging time. Never before have we seen such a drastic increase in the number of people turning to us and our partners for assistance. We know we simply could not have served this many clients without the support of individuals like you.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people rely on our services to help make ends meet; but now more than ever, we must remain relentless in our commitment to ensuring everyone in our communities has the nutritious food they need. We will continue to work with our community and build on our work from this last year in order to provide the most impactful services possible for our clients. Together, we can continue to make a true difference in the health and well-being of our neighbors.
Thank you again for joining us in the fight against hunger!
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