Federal funding delay hits Portage County families in need of food and shelter

A FEMA program that has provided emergency food and shelter for over four decades has not released funding under the Trump administration, leaving local aid organizations to increasingly rely on local donors — if they can be found.

Money for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program disappeared soon after President Donald Trump took office. Congress has funded the program, but FEMA has delayed the process by which that funding can be released to communities and the distribution expected in the spring did not happen.

The Government Accountability Office issued a report Sept. 15 that FEMA violated the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which allows the president to withhold obligated funds only under certain circumstances and even then only with Congress’ express legislative approval.

In Portage County, two organizations, Axess Family Services and Change Hunger, each received 40% of the county’s $70,000 to $80,000 EFSP allocation. Change Hunger is a local nonprofit that funnels ESFP funds to nine local emergency food pantries. Community Action Council of Portage County received the remaining 20% cut to stave off utility disconnects for needy applicants.

Mark Frisone, executive director of Axess Family Services (formerly Family & Community Services), said there’s no clear source of funding to make up the loss to those three organizations.

“I’m a big fan of trying to eliminate waste and fraud. There is not a penny of EFSP funds that falls into that category,” he said. “It’s effectively managed because it’s done at the local level. You’re taking food away from the hungriest of the hungry, the people that are on the verge of homelessness.”

AFS’s share went to Housing and Emergency Support Services, which assists homeowners and renters facing financial crises.

“There’s money to help people who are homeless, but if you have a home and run into trouble financially, there aren’t as many resources. They would use it for that, to help people avoid eviction,” United Way of Portage County President and CEO Bill Childers said.

The EFSP funding freeze translates to a $6,000 annual cut for Change Hunger’s Brimfield Community Cupboard, which serves about 150 families a month. The other eight Change Hunger consortium members include Salvation Army sites in Windham and Ravenna, Kent Social Services, Center of Hope, Streetsboro Community Pantry, the RSA Food Shelf, Crestwood 4C’s and Catholic Charities.

“One third of our budget missing does hurt,” said Brimfield Community Cupboard Trustee Bill Bissler. “It’s just less food that we can purchase. It’s roughly three to four months of food that we lost that we have to make up in other ways.”

To keep cupboard shelves stocked, Bissler and his colleagues have halved the amount of food they distribute to each recipient. They are considering GoFundMe campaigns, Amazon donation drives and personally lobbying area businesses. 

“You can see the handwriting on the wall. We’re kind of wondering if we’re even going to be able to stay open, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess,” Bissler said.

Streetsboro Community Pantry Board President Anne Arbuckle also said the EFSP funds will be missed.

“It wasn’t a huge amount of money because we are a fairly small pantry, but we did depend on it,” she said. “The amount of food we can purchase from the [Akron Canton] Foodbank has been reduced. Whether that will affect our donations as well, I don’t know. That remains to be seen.”

Faced with rising food costs themselves, Arbuckle said it’s anyone’s guess if the pantry’s usual donors will be able to increase their offerings. Like other pantry leaders, she is hoping to ramp up SCP’s partnership with area businesses.

She hasn’t yet had to reduce the amount of food distributed each month to some 112 needy families, but admits the day could come. Locking the pantry door is also a possibility.

“Without donations, we can’t buy food, and if we can’t buy food we will have to close. We’re really hoping we won’t have to do that,” she said.

Diane Jones, one of three directors of the Randolph-Suffield-Atwater (RSA) Food Shelf, said EFSP funding amounted to $1,500 in 2024: 5% of the pantry’s annual budget. Without those dollars, she anticipates more community food drives and more direct solicitations.

Though she does not expect clients’ monthly allotments to be curtailed, Jones said the 80 or so families that use the pantry each month may see some changes. Ditto the 100-115 families that receive Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter baskets.

“If something isn’t donated, we can’t provide as much. Since pies are so expensive, they may get cake mix and frosting. They still get something, but it may be lesser quality,” she said.

Looking to Portage County’s board of commissioners and city and village councils is not an option, Frisone said.

County Commissioner Mike Tinlin, though, said the funding door is not completely closed. While the county does not now have funding to help Axess, Community Action Council and the food pantries, he said he and his colleagues are exploring alternatives.

“We know it’s an issue,” he said. “We have to make some kind of determination as to where we get it and how we get it. I am definitely not opposed to helping if we can. It’s a definite need. We’re trying to find the money anywhere we can, but if it’s not there, it’s not there.”

For the time being, then, the organizations are on their own. Thanks to fundraising efforts and a few Job and Family Services grants, Community Action Council is still able to offer limited utility assistance, at least for now, Executive Director David Shea said.

The future may be different. From Shea’s vantage point, the county’s biggest need is the high cost of housing, especially for seniors on fixed incomes. He can only hope that the 8,000 to 9,000 Portage County families that receive utility assistance every year have somewhere to turn.

“What are they going to do?” he asked. “[Congress is] calling for the elimination of a bunch of stuff. We don’t know what they’re going to do. We don’t know.”

He and Frisone are also concerned about the end of an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding source set to run out in 2026. That $330,000 a year distributed to dozens of Portage County’s urban and rural food pantries was designed to be a three-year, stop-gap measure; its loss exacerbates an already dire situation, Childers said.

Childers gave grim voice to the bottom line.

“There’s going to be more people going to get evicted, more people going to get their utilities disconnected and more people going to go without food,” he said.

To try to avert the worst outcome, United Way of Portage County is hoping donors will come up with at least $20,000, which the organization would then split among Axess, Community Action Council and Change Hunger. So far the account holds $7,000.

To donate, send a check to United Way of Portage County, with “for EFSP” on the memo line to P.O. Box 845 Ravenna OH 44266. Or visit uwportage.org, click on the donate button and note EFSP in the comment section.