WOFB helps food insecure apply for benefits

LIMA — The West Ohio Food Bank is now helping some of its clients apply for food benefits.

The food bank started providing the free service last year so people can learn whether they’re eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps, and apply for benefits while they’re visiting WOFB pantries and distribution lines.

“A lot of (people) we assist, especially our senior clientele, don’t realize that they may be qualified to receive SNAP benefits,” WOFB CEO Tommie Harner said.

The federal program is available to individuals and families whose earnings fall below 130% of federal poverty level, with higher income limits for seniors and disabled persons.

A family of four earning less than $39,000 a year could see a maximum of $973 a month in SNAP benefits to pay for groceries, though amounts vary based on living expenses like rent and utilities used to calculate a family’s monthly benefits.

Food banks are increasingly turning to SNAP outreach to help cash-strapped families and seniors stretch their grocery budgets at a time when inflation is sending many families to food banks for help.

Donations to the WOFB have declined significantly since 2021, when the food bank received 12 million pounds of food and hygiene products to give away to needy families.

Donations declined to just over 8 million pounds of product last year, even as the food bank saw nearly 20,000 people who had never sought its assistance in the past, according to Harner.

The WOFB obtained a grant last year to train its volunteers in SNAP outreach. So far, Harner estimates volunteers have assisted 30 people with their applications or renewals.

“If you’re not very tech-savy it can be cumbersome,” Harner said. “There’s so much information that you have to have available when you (apply).” But it doesn’t have to be a long process with the WOFB’s help, Harner said.

“We make it as easy as possible for them.”