Hunger at the Last Mile in Portage County

Patrick Childers (: 00:10

Right now, you're on a fixed income. I'm on social security, and it's not much. I still got a house team. Electric bill just doubled last week. It doubled. I didn't use no more electric. Gas going up, you're like, what am I gonna eat? That's Dennis, one of the good folks that you'll meet today who's waiting in line at a pop-up food pantry. Hi, I'm Patrick, and I'm here with my brother. Hi, I'm Ben.

Thanks for joining us on our journey through food insecurity relief in Northeast Ohio. So far in the series, we've spoken with civil servants John Kennedy and Sabrina Christian Bennett. Then we spoke with Bill and Heather of United Way, Portage County, as well as Brooke and Raven of the Akron Kin Food Bank. Now we'll finally meet some of the hardworking people on the ground, bringing resources directly to those who need it, namely Jason and Rena, a husband and wife team who both grew up in rural Portage County communities.

They run Roe Relief Mobile Food Pantry, the grassroots nonprofit organization that we're learning about firsthand today. Thanks for coming along with us. This is United Relief.

Patrick Childers (: 01:30

Hey, how are you? Hello, Ben. Rina. Nice to you. Patrick. Hi, Patrick. Good to meet you, Here we are at the Akron Canton Food Bank, the facility we toured with Brooke and Raven last time we spoke. Jason and Rina are here to pick up some food to distribute later today. But first, I think we should get some background information on their nonprofit. They were just compelled by seeing footage. mean, we had a ton of news crews down here all the time when we were doing our drive-through distribution. It's one thing we started.

during the pandemic because of safety, because of the amount of people that needed to be served. It was just quick and easy for us to do. so here's Brooke and Raven talking about how the local media covered the food banks drive up pantry program. Jason and Rena saw this on TV and thought, wow, you know, there's so many people hurting in this community. What can we do? What can we do now? And I was like, all of sudden.

they are with their mobile off of the entry. which they were going to make a for-profit. They had gotten that bus and they were going to do a food truck, like a for-profit food truck, and then they saw the need and decided during COVID that it was going to be them giving away food. So they're incredible. That's cool. They didn't share that. Yeah. Yeah. They build great relationships with their neighbors and Rena does the intake. And I just really admired the fact that she was in no rush at all. When I was at her distribution, she takes her time and

gets to know the person, talks to them. It's awesome to see them take the time to get to know the people and give them a chance to get their food with dignity.

Patrick Childers (: 03:06

Now we're outside the food bank with Brooke, Jason and Rena and there's a huge line of cars for a food pantry unrelated to rural relief happening here today.

No, no, usually have enough. Okay. So these people are lined up outside the distribution center and are so concerned they might not get food. They get here hours early. It's fleets of cars and just like you pull up, pop the trunk, put it in, close the trunk and you're gone. Yeah, that's pretty nuts. That's how we do it too. Yeah, okay. They stay in the car. They out, they stay in their car, we put it in their car. Okay. Is that a new thing since COVID? We, well, we started in COVID so we're stuck with it because it's easy.

Yeah, sure. It works for us.

And a lot of the people they serve probably couldn't get out of their cars to shop the shelves. So Jason and Rena come to the food bank to pick up food and bring it to them in rural areas. does most of the ordering. Yeah, and it's spotty. It's not the same every time he orders. So you're actually ordering a weekly load, is that right? Yeah, so we're ordering enough to pass out today. So what we do is we come here, we load up, then we go right later, a couple hours later and pass it on. And we never know what they call it, the menu.

It depends on what stores donate. It depends on what the USDA can provide them through their programs. They were having these really great produce boxes that we could hand out to families like a whole box from local farmers. And healthy produce remains a focus of Jason and Rena's. Now, the audio quality here isn't great, but I think it's important that we listen to this.

Patrick Childers (: 05:04

We try to get more than this normally. But unfortunately, the menu is smaller, probably because of their disfavor. You can hear the disappointment in Rena's voice as she realizes that the order she's inspecting isn't as large as they were hoping. So next we'll head into the market within the food bank to try and fill in some of the gaps. We're in the marketplace. So they had pre-ordered food and that pallet was ready to go for them as soon as they showed up.

And so Jason has been loading that into the van. And then what Rena's been doing is she's been here in the marketplace and this is just where there is additionally donated food. Then what you do is you come out and you weigh the freezer items and then you weigh the dry pantry items and then those are just charged to their accounts. We've been focusing on most leaf.

fresh produce and meat this year. Last year we gave out a lot of boxed stuff that you know really isn't that healthy and also it's not that hard to get home. So really, we'll just pack up right on site. have volunteers coming today. They'll be bagging the produce up, splitting it up, then we'll pass it out. Lately it's been done in like half an hour because we can only get so much in the bus.

Patrick Childers (: 06:31

So anticipates a line much like we saw in the United Way parking lot and in the parking lot of the food bank.

Now every person who comes through their mobile food pantry has to be logged due to state regulations and I found something pretty remarkable immediately. put them in you can see if they're a new client or a new whatever. Almost 80 % of the people that we were serving had never accessed.

food pantry or hot meal site or anything like that. And that's at the core of Jason and Rena's mission, to help get food to people who don't have access to these pantries. So that number is a measure of need, but also success in their mission. Next, Jason shows us the mobile food pantry itself. So this thing was a daycare bus that we bought from a gentleman in Amish country. He was planning on...

driving Amish to the casino with the racetracks in it. And he bought it, you know, that's what he told us. It was jungle wrapped from being a daycare bus. They have like lion king freaking seam on it. So we drove it around for a while with that. That was before we decided what we were gonna do with it. You know, before we decided we were gonna be able to do the pantry. Once we decided that, we peeled it off, you know, we painted it ourselves. The funny thing is, is when we peeled that off right here.

Like a little kid had painted or drawn that jungle scene on the bus. So we can take the Rangers tip. It was like, wouldn't that go away? Yeah. But yeah, feel free to a look. So while these two finish up their order, we take a step inside the bus. This is a half size school bus that has one seat remaining for a passenger and then the driver's seat.

Patrick Childers (: 08:28

Three enormous Coleman coolers that have the cold products in them. Yeah, in terms of like depth. So there are four windows and I think a normal school bus has 20. I went on tour on a bus this size once. I've seen pictures of you on a tour. And there you go. We've checked out the Foodbanks distribution center, filled up the bus with food. And now Jason and Rena will go.

get some extra food to make up for their order being a little late on fresh produce and we part ways. We'll see you at two in Atwater. Sounds good. Have a great day.

Patrick Childers (: 09:07

So while they get ready for their food giveaway, I'd like to take you back over to United Way headquarters to see what a larger but similar food giveaway looks like. Here at the United Way Portage County offices where we are in the same building with the Portage County Health District and they have a pop-up food pantry they're doing today in collaboration with the Akron Canton Food Bank. It's a drive-through food pantry. Everybody will get a box and a tote bag of food.

And last month they did about 310 and they ran out of food. And so today we're kind of checking them out to see if they're ready for the onslaught. All right, let's head out. So again, now we're back to the dead of winter in Ravenna after our conversation with Bill and Heather.

As we bundle up, can see through the glass doors that the parking lot outside of United Way HQ has cones directing cars into a formation like the queues at an amusement park, and we open the door to a generator that I believe is powering the cold storage, but honestly, in this weather, we probably don't need much refrigeration. How many cars do you think are lined up now at 1PM? There's 40. I love everybody's outdoor get up that they've got going on. So we have...

I don't know, 25 workers out here, all bundled up, it's like 20 degrees out. Everybody has a neon yellow. Safety vest, safety first. Neon yellow safety vest on. Hi Bill. Becky, meet my son Patrick. Hi Patrick, I'm Becky. This is Becky Lehman, the Portage County Health Commissioner. She's standing under the awning in what used to be the bank's drive up window.

There are two massive trucks full of food being unloaded and packed onto tables in anticipation of the three lines of cars that will be coming through here. Unfortunately, my PIO is not here. would be Sarah. I thought you were the PIO. Bob said the PIO. got to talk to Health commissioner cannot be PIO. But I can still do what is needed. You can still talk. Well, Becky's able to talk. We step away because it's just about time for them to begin.

Patrick Childers (: 11:15

Luckily, I got a chance to chat with her briefly on my way out a little later and things seemed to be going smoothly. Amazing. So many people getting fed right now. I know. We are the largest pop-up food pantry of eight counties. Eight counties? Yeah. A lot of hungry people taking food home tonight. Yeah, we served 307 last month. How many are you prepared for this 350 today. All right, you're ready for 350? Do it! Let's do it! Yeah! That's right. They're planning on feeding 350 families today. Now,

These are folks who were able to drive to Ravenna and receive food. Next, we'll see what it looks like in rural Ohio, where many people aren't always able to travel from their towns to these larger food pantries.

Patrick Childers (: 12:00

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Patrick Childers (: 12:08

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So we're here at Atwater Park, we're food distribution with Rural Relief. And looks like we're here first. So this is a pretty nice looking park. So there's a pavilion with about, I maybe 12 picnic tables. There's a swing set, you know, that's all mulched over. There is a baseball field. you want to run the bases? Looks like a football field. And a cornfield. Yeah. Rural Ohio. Rural Ohio. You to the bases? Yeah.

So as we pull up, see Jason and Rena packing up bags of food and when a car pulls in early, Jason and Rena just wave them in. have an early comer and you're just gonna load them up? Yeah, try to, if we can, we try to do that. So all that stuff we got, I don't know if you guys saw all the fruit and stuff. Oh yeah. That's what was usable out of all that. Oh no, was it all moldy? Mm-hmm. Got it. Got it home and I decided to take a look at it, sort of like closer look at it and was like,

Yeah, that's so that's you know, that's something that we run into with the food bank. Sure. It is what it is. know, stuff doesn't cost us anything. Yeah. Their menu has been lately. It's been really I don't know if it's a supply thing for them or what's going on, but it's not quite as much there as normally is. We were inside of the inventory and they're half full. Yeah. What they're normally supposed to be at. And you know, and she was, you we were talking with Remy. We talked to them for like an hour and a half.

I mean, it was all about just, you know, it's everything else is impacting everything else. That's kind of what I figured. We do what we can. Supply chain issues have affected so many aspects of life post-COVID and food insecurity is no different. Once we loaded up their early bird, we had a chance to chat with Jason and Rena about these larger issues. I couldn't get into this with the food bank people. They're not allowed to talk about their personal politics. Is there a way for us to fix our system?

Patrick Childers (: 14:02

And she was like, you're to have to turn the tape recorder off. And I turned it off and she was like, I'm not allowed to talk about that. She almost did. So we're able to get some insight into how they view this systemic issue. I mean, think our culture is really twisted. Yeah. To the point where there's only two classes. There's not so much a middle class anymore. Doesn't really feel like it. No. You know. No. I mean, there's those that get by.

There's those that get by barely. I guess the middle class might be those that get by and those that get by barely. The whole concept of privilege. We're grateful for everything that everybody gives us. Yeah. You know, that we butt up against a lot where we're just kind of like, yeah, okay, thank you. But, you know, got to kind of take a step back. Yeah. Shake it off a little Don't talk too much with them because you might hear something that you don't want to hear. You're angry. Hi. How are you?

Hello. Hi. Oh, hello. I'm Patrick. Just like that, our sociopolitical conversation gets cut short by the volunteers showing up and the volunteer is Jason's mom. So how did you get you to get re-looped in just from being the mom? Yeah. Yeah. No, he's always had that that heart to do and do again. When he's doing this type of thing, because every area that he goes, a lot of these people don't have transportation. Yes.

They don't have availability, they're food banks. And it's very sad because nobody should go hungry. Especially in a country where we seem to have plenty of food to go around. So at this point, Jason and Rena and their two volunteers are ready to go. And we're starting to get a line of cars here at the Atwater Park. We have all the volunteers here now and they are just working with Jason to get bags put together for each of the folks that come in.

had about four people come through and we got another person waiting in line and we'll probably have a pretty steady stream here for the next 45 minutes or so. Rina is saying hi to each car and seeing what's going on and family size and reporting that back so that way they know how to make the bags. Hi there. Hi, hello. How you doing? I'm good, thanks. Great. So right now what Rina is doing is she's greeting different participants in the program as they kind of drive up and having them fill out.

Patrick Childers (: 16:28

updated address information, phone number information, but it's really a way to, you know, check to make sure that people are in the system. Hello there. Hi, I haven't seen you for while. Where you been? I've been around. You've been busy. You know, one thing that Ben pointed out when we were standing outside of the food bank is that all types of vehicles were pulling up to take advantage of the food pantry there. And it's something that we're noticing here as well. There's some 20 year old trucks, some

10 year old sedans and some brand new SUVs all lining up to get groceries. it harkens back to Sabrina Christian Bennett's point that food insecurity is not just affecting the most impoverished people in our society. It's happening across the board.

How did you hear about rural relief? I think just the signs. just driving by? Yeah, with the pandemic and stuff, were signs about groceries with the green bus. What is that? So we stopped by the one day and then we saw what it was. She gave us more information about it. So we were doing it, especially during the pandemic and stuff. And then do you get to are you able to come most weeks? Yeah. that's great. OK. Yeah. My market on my calendar now that I know it's like now the first Thursday of the month and stuff, where before we take the kids back and forth to school.

So I would see the signs up and then I would remember, yeah, that's right, they're there today, you know, so. Then how many kids do you have? Four. Oh, wonderful. My husband and I were raising our four grandkids. Oh, wonderful. Okay. The is 16, the youngest is two and a half. Gotcha. And are you here in Portage County? Yeah. Okay. In Atwater. Well, thanks so much for chatting with us. We really appreciate it. hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you. And after we're done talking to this very generous grandmother, I noticed somebody giving away the food that they just got. I just saw you sharing some of your food.

Yeah. And I thought that was really nice of you. So this woman pulls up in her blue Ford Taurus, gets her trunk stocked with groceries, and then run some of her food over to a woman who's actively digging through a trash can in the park, looking for cans and bottles to return for the deposit. How did you hear about the Rural Relief Project? From a friend who lives out this way. wonderful. And I've fallen on some harder times and it...

Patrick Childers (: 18:43

It helps. It certainly does. definitely helps. And I know she's always collecting cans and everything. So I didn't know if she ever got anything from here. I thought I'd give her some because things are rough. mean, the food is so expensive right now. I know. It's just horrible. It's hard to make ends meet. Yeah. And these guys are wonderful. They really are.

Patrick Childers (: 19:16

We have a special guest here at the distribution. we have Bill Childers from United Way Portage County. How you doing? Marvelous. It's another sunny day in Portage County. And it actually is a sunny day in Portage County. It's not always sunny. It's always sunny in Portage County, Ohio. So now Bill shows up to help out and check in, reaffirming United Way's mission, which is helping make sure people have resources and our friends at the.

Rural Relief Mobile Food Pantry have done a marvelous job to get resources outside of the municipalities in Portage County to people who don't have the transportation that people need. Yeah, mean, I'm, you know, having grown up here, the lack of even, you know, sidewalks on these roads, you know, you couldn't or even trying if you wanted to bike down the roads, like they're not really there are lots of blind spots. It makes it very difficult to not be car dependent.

Hey, Bel. United Wives. Hi, Bel. Good to see you. see you. You know, we've got another grant for you guys for the 250 that we did last year. nice. Thank you so We'll be getting that out to you. Thank you so much. All right. Well, we appreciate you guys so much and your support. Have you guys gotten funding through us from the Giving Well Family Foundation? Okay, so you need to get on our website and apply. It's a short application.

You can probably do it in a half an hour or less. then, and they'll give up to $5,000. I'll fly for that for sure. Yeah, because that would then provide, you know, like a regular source of funding. you picked up the... Becker and Keenan food bag this morning. And some of it was donated from other people. Bill's doing what he does best here and what United Way does, connecting Jason and Rena to more stable funding. Because as it stands, they get funding from...

multiple sources and there's constant maintenance involved in that. More funding opportunities are always good news. at this point in the distribution cycle, they're just, they're all hustling. So Marina is checking people in, but then kind of jumping into the van. The big thing she's working on is making sure she knows how many kids each of the families have as they have some special, like they have snack packs and some other kind of special things like for kids. So, but then, you know, they're, they're also kind of

Patrick Childers (: 21:43

a lot of the same people, a lot of people that they recognize. And so for instance, someone that just came through has a teenager who really loves ramen and they just happened to have had some like ramen from a donor that gave them some random food. So they were able to like give that person some ramen. And so, you know, really, you know, a lot of like what we talked about earlier in terms of like,

You know, it doesn't just have to be sustenance, giving, like having, making sure that people have like dignity with like the food they're getting no matter where they're getting it from. This is really important. Welcome. Come back. Thank you. Are you going to be coming next month? Okay. Thank you so much. Same time, same place. Thank you.

Patrick Childers (: 22:29

How doing? I'm Ben. I'm Ben. Ben, Dennis. Dennis, Dennis. Would you like to be anonymous or recognized? be anonymous. I or recognize, I don't care. Whatever's best for you. So how did you hear about Rural Relief? Actually, on Facebook, I believe.

okay. They said you were like one of their favorites. you've been coming around quite a bit. Yeah, almost every... Okay, here to the Atwater location? Okay. It doesn't seem like a lot of people follow them around. just come once a Yeah, well, I didn't want to go get somebody else. You know, I mean, they're in Atwater and I know they're in Randolph and all them places. But, you know, I just let their hero come Okay. Sure. Yeah. Right now, mean, you know, you're on fish tank, I'm you know, I'm on social security.

And it's not much and I still got house pain. know, extra bill just doubled last week. It doubled. You know, I didn't use no more electric gas going up. You're like, what am I going to eat? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, I pay the wife doctor's bill or whatever, you know. So are you going to the do you go to the food pantry as well? I go to the.

I think it's called the food bank. It's in the church over there once a month. Get a couple cans here, couple cans of earlobe and bread there and peanut butter. it makes... And that's what it says. Like, I wish I could get the lottery. It's so neat to pay back, you know, but, you know, I fear, you know, it's the same thing. You know, it's like, yeah, I should feel bad for taking it, but I don't. You know, I mean, it's like, you know, I did my thing. I did two years in the Army and paid my taxes all my life.

You know, I mean, it's the way it takes me to work. I go to work again now. You know, they're 75, they don't even want to talk to you. know, I'm like, yeah, I'd like to work. I'd go work full time if I could. Yeah. You know, I mean, the reality is, like, there's enough food for everybody to have food. I see to get that food to the people who need it right at the end of the day. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. to meet It's really nice to speak with Dennis. You know, it occurs to me as comfortable as he is chatting with us,

Patrick Childers (: 24:39

He still feels like he doesn't want to take from other people in need by taking advantage of these services that are for people like us. Okay, so we've been going for about 45 minutes. There's a little bit left. There's four trucks right now. You can see they're at a point where it's trying to figure out what's the best way to...

use the resources that they have. Before long the line dies down and the food starts to run out. Barely, I mean we're scraping by to make sure everybody gets something but everybody's getting something. Yeah, that's something more than what they had. Yeah, so you know, hopefully no one else comes or I gotta be the bearer of bad news and some of them are all out of food. But luckily nobody else pulls into the park and Jason and Rena take the opportunity to pack up before anybody else comes along. So you try to get out of here so you don't attract

So we have to tell them that we're And usually it's like we run and grab everything and just take off. Alina cars. Yeah, so it worked out really well this time. Good, good, good. And you today as a success? Absolutely. And the bus is empty. That's success. Good. Well, I see you guys. Pleasure. And we'll be in touch. OK? Yes. And I sent you a link for that grant. And you just click on that and the grant's right there. So you can just load that right there.

Perfect. So yeah. one more time. It was such a pleasure. ya. And just like that, Rural Relief Mobile Food Pantry distributes food to 20 more families who go home with meals they wouldn't have otherwise. And Jason and Rena go home to apply for some more grants. Even with our civil servants and organizations like United Way working to secure funding for these programs.

Even with food banks acting as central hubs to gather, store, and distribute food, it's still a lot of work with non-stop roadblocks to run a food pantry. We're so thankful for the folks putting in this work, and we hope that you'll also have a new appreciation for them. So, what else is there to do? On our next and final installment, you'll hear from many of the people we've met during our journey through Portage County, providing solutions, insights, and calls to action from their unique perspectives.

Patrick Childers (: 26:47

You'll hear about what each of us can do as community members, as citizens, as individuals. We hope you'll join us one more time for United Relief.

Patrick Childers (: 27:03

Thanks for joining us. United Relief is an odd conduit media production developed and produced by us, Ben and Patrick Childers. It's edited, mixed and mastered by Patrick, with fact-checking by Dash Lewis, story editing by Jenna Marson, and artwork by Migs Sunny. The series contains original music and sound design by LT Headtrip. This episode also has music performed by Pear and Flow. Special thanks to United Way Portage County in Ohio.

United Way is an international organization with 1,200 chapters in the U.S. alone. If you or someone you know are suffering from food insecurity and live in the U.S., we encourage you to dial 211 or visit 211.org and find out what services are available to you. They're here to help. You can also reach out to your local food bank. You'll find a list of food banks throughout the U.S. at feedingamerica.org. If you're eager to help, you can go to unitedway.org and find your local United Way. You can also discover volunteer opportunities through 211.

Get in touch with your local representatives to find out what they're doing to help relieve food insecurity in your area and how you can pitch in. Also, don't forget to meet your neighbors and ask what you can do in your immediate community. Find the links in our show notes. If you have an untold story about community impact and are looking for help telling it via podcasting, contact us at services at oddconduitmedia.com. And you can learn more about us on the web at oddconduitmedia.com.