By John Kennedy, Executive Director, Community Action Council of Portage County
2026 has been a challenging and difficult year for a lot of families in Portage County, with many living paycheck to paycheck, barely keeping up with the rising cost of, well, everything. But even in these trying times, it is important – and perhaps necessary – to celebrate some of the good that is happening, too.
For me, one of those moments came recently as the Community Action Council of Portage County wrapped up our annual Summer Food Service Program for children.
The Summer Food Service Program, or SFSP, was established to ensure that children from low-income families continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Child Nutrition Services.
Meeting the demand for child nutrition in Portage County is challenging, to put it mildly. Our county is heavily rural. Of our 504 square miles, approximately 80 percent—or about 395 square miles—is considered rural. That geography presents some very real logistical challenges, especially when you’re trying to make sure hungry children have access to meals across such a large area.
So we adapted.
Last year, the Community Action Council began a food delivery program through Innovation Food Services, which packs boxes containing breakfast and lunch meals and uses FedEx to deliver those meals every 10-12 days directly to homes in rural areas of Portage County.
In 2025, we delivered 30,180 meals through what is known as the “rural non-congregate” program. This year, that number jumped more than threefold—to more than 90,000 meals.
But the meal count only tells part of the story; the number of children served is another.
Last year, we served 276 children through the food delivery program. This year, that number climbed to 818 children—an increase of 196 percent. Think about that -- 818 children who otherwise might not have had reliable access to a nutritious meal during the summer.
And we adapted our traditional meal sites, too. In 2025, we operated 14 open / free meal sites throughout Portage County, concentrating our efforts in geographic areas with significant numbers of low-income children. This year, we added two more sites in Kent.
Once again, the numbers -- meals and kids served on-site -- tell the story.
We went from providing approximately 10,000 meals on-site last year to more than 11,000 meals this year. The average number of children served on-site also increased, from 317 last year to more than 425 this year. The Ben Curtis Foundation also chipped in, handing out Birdie Bags – bags containing nutritious food and snacks kids could take home – every week at many of our sites.
When you put the delivery and on-site programs together, the numbers are both encouraging and sobering.
This summer, the Community Action Council of Portage County provided more than 100,000 meals to more than 1,240 children.
While I am incredibly proud of that accomplishment, I am also sobered by what those numbers tell us about the need in our community.
Without USDA funding, we simply would not have been able to reach so many children. That support allowed us to put nutritious food on the tables of families who might otherwise have had to make an impossible choice between buying groceries and paying another household bill.
And those choices are becoming harder for more families. At a time when the rising cost of energy and fuel, groceries, and prescription medications continues to put pressure on household budgets, more families are struggling to make ends meet.
Some are going without adequate food. Some are going without air conditioning – our staff hear those stories every day. Some are putting off needed medications. And when families struggle, children feel it, too.
I tell people all the time that if you want an indicator of how things are going across Ohio—and, in many ways, across the country—look no further than Portage County. As Portage County goes, so goes the state. So goes the country.
That’s why I want to end on a good note. Because despite the challenges we face, there is a lot worth celebrating.
Here in Portage County, when we see a need, we try to fill it. When we see a wrong, we try to right it. We don’t always get it right; sometimes our solutions aren’t always perfect. I wish I could wave a magic wand and solve every problem — I can’t, just ask my wife, Marybeth!
But we can do something. We can deliver a box of nutritious meals to a child’s doorstep. We can open a meal site in a neighborhood where children need it. We can make sure a child doesn’t have to wonder where their next meal is coming from.
And this summer, we did that for more than 1,240 children here in Portage County.
That’s worth celebrating.
One meal. One child. One family at a time.