Hunger rising in Ohio
I am hearing that many of our church and interfaith pantries are overwhelmed by the rising number of people in need of food. USDA figures show that Ohio is tied for 35th place among the states – way below the national average for food security. The Hunger Network in Ohio reported this weekend that food prices have risen 2.4% in the US from September 2022 to September, 2023, and the average household SNAP benefit went down $20 a month in Ohio after the pandemic era benefit expansion expired. Please email me if you’d like to receive advocacy alerts on Ohio and Congressional proposals to cut or expand nutrition funding.
Federal nutrition programs provide ten times as much food as private churches and non-profits combined, Bread for the World reports. Congress’ continuing resolutions have kept that funding alive at current levels, but a government shutdown will be devastating. One of the most important ways we can strengthen food security in the United States is by protecting and strengthening federal nutrition spending including SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps), which some Congressional leaders want to slash.
League of Women Voters Health Equity Forum
Nov. 29, 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Zoom
An outstanding panel will discuss the factors in health inequity in the United States through the lens of their advocacy work in Greater Cincinnati. This forum is hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area (LWVCA). Past LWVCA Co-President Elizabeth Brown, a parishioner at Christ Church Cathedral, shared this invitation. Register here. Here are the speakers:
- Lee Hughes, MD, neurologist, will provide an overview about bringing the USA closer to a level of what other nations have regarding universal healthcare.
- Renee Mahaffey Harris, CHES, President/CEO of the Center for Closing the Health Gap. This organization leads the effort to eliminate social and health disparity in Cincinnati.
- Sarah Mills, MPA, Chief Executive Officer of Health Care Access Now. HCAN provides vital one-on-one help to people struggling to navigate the healthcare system and works to improve the health status of Greater Cincinnati’s vulnerable residents.
- Jeanne Corwin, MD, gynecologist, will focus on health equity in reproductive rights and speak about a Medicare for All option.
The program will include time for Q & A. Renee Mahaffey Harris has served as a speaker at the diocese’s Absalom Jones Symposium. Sarah Mills writes powerful analyses about the social determinants of health including housing insecurity.
Help us document and take action on rural homelessness
At this weekend’s annual meeting of the Hunger Network in Ohio, Zach Johnson of St. Paul’s, Logan, shared news of a growing housing crisis in the Hocking Valley and Lancaster. The Rev. Terry Williams, a UCC pastor in Chillicothe, confirmed the same dynamics in Ross County. Here’s what they are seeing:
- Homeless people are camping out along Lancaster’s bike trails. When a homeless person dies outside, no one talks about it in public.
- As Hocking County communities tout tourism, many houses are being bought up by investors and turned into Air BnBs.
- Rents and home prices are rising fast, pushing out the working-class families who have lived here for generations.
- Community leaders are not discussing the growing shortage of affordable housing or the increase in homelessness.
- Rural towns are receiving homeless people from cities who have been given bus passes and are bereft when they arrive. Rural emergency assistance ministries are overwhelmed and not equipped to meet these rising needs.
- NIMBY pressures are rising, manifested in opposition to church-based emergency assistance ministries. When St. Paul’s, Logan, put up a Blessing Box, some well-to-do neighbors complained and even removed the food in it.
The Rev. Douglas Argue, a deacon of our diocese and Managing Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), is tracking these trends, commenting that they “are difficult to change and address and take lots of local advocacy and pressure to bring the issues to public attention and the attention of elected officials. We have been working with the state representatives and senators from around the state to address such issues that are being experienced across Ohio.”
Please email me if you are seeing an increase in homelessness in your community, what’s driving it, and what, if anything, local leaders are doing about it, and if you would like to help advocate for solutions.
Weigh in by Dec. 7 on ATF proposed rule to close loopholes in gun background checks
Major gun safety non-profits, including Sandy Hook Promise, Brady, and Giffords, support a proposed rule issued Aug. 31 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to clarify who is engaged in the business of selling firearms and must now conduct background checks under the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. If you are working to help your community deal with the trauma of gun violence and prevent it, please read the information below send your first-hand testimony to the ATF by Dec. 7.
You can read about the rule in this fact sheet put out by Giffords. “Only those sellers who are required to obtain an FFL [Federal Firearms License] through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) must perform background checks via the NICS system. As a result of this loophole, unlicensed gun sellers frequently sell guns without background checks online, at gun shows, and through unregulated person-to-person sales,” Giffords explains. “Up to 80% of firearms used for criminal purposes were obtained from unlicensed sources.”
This link explains how to submit comments on the rule to ATF electronically or by mail. Please read the instructions carefully to ensure your comment is accepted. “All submissions received must include the agency name and docket number (ATF 2022R–17) for this notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM” or “proposed rule”),” ATF writes. They also explain that you should leave out any personal identifying information in the body of your comment or any attachments you upload if you don’t want it posted on the internet.
Fracking decisions
Last Wednesday the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission voted to allow industry to submit bids to frack under Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County plus two wildlife areas, one in Carroll County, and the other in Columbiana County to the north of our diocese. “The committee denied a request for Wolf Run State Park in Noble County, in part because of concerns about land used by Ohio State University. The university’s Eastern Agricultural Research Station uses the land to conduct research into cattle reproduction, sheep management and other studies,” reports Jessie Balmert in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“The commission did add some language requested by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to address water sources, reduce light pollution and limit fracking during hunting season.
“Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is still investigating fake pro-fracking letters sent to the commission after a Cleveland.com investigation. The probe is ongoing, a spokeswoman said Wednesday [Nov. 15].”
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com
