Mid-Ohio Food Collective, as its recent name change from Mid-Ohio Foodbank suggests, has gone well beyond simply being a food bank. It is using data analytics to predict when and where people need food so it can meet that need. If pantries—which it calls markets, removing the stigma families face when they have to seek help—are only open when customers are working, how can they visit?
To that end, Mid-Ohio plans to expand to 10 markets in Franklin County in areas of need. It serves a 20-county region overall, which it has done during the past year with the help of the National Guard, who filled in for a variety of roles including those vacated by office workers who usually make up a core group of volunteers, but who stayed home to avoid COVID-19.
Led by campaign co-chairs Kirt Walker of Nationwide, Steve Steinour of Huntington and Nick Akins of American Electric Power and their wives, the Columbus business community raised $24 million in just a few months from 100 supporters. Now, the group’s efforts turn to raise the final $6 million of a $30 million goal, which it hopes to meet this summer, likely from many small-dollar-amount donations. This is the largest campaign in the organization’s history by a lot — its next largest raised $16 million during the last recession in 2008-09.
CEO Matt Habash says last year, more than 60,000 families showed up needing help for the first time, and 750 families a day visited its Grove City headquarters. That number was 250 families a day in 2019. “If there’s ever been a time when people have said, ‘I get it,’ it’s now,” Walker says. “The ask has been easy.”
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