Second Harvest Food Bank plans to scale back on giving food directly to Clark County residents. Instead, they say partner agencies are boosting services and filling the need.
"The agencies are all for it. We found ourselves competing with the agencies a lot of times and you don't want to compete with your partners," said Andy Irick, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank. "We want the food to be distributed fairly and get to where it needs to be. So we crossed that line in December of 2024 where they actually distributed a little bit more than we did. We were about 50/50. And two years ago, we were probably closer to 70% at the food bank."
Second Harvest Food Bank serves Champagne, Clark and Logan counties by collecting, storing and distributing food to minimize hunger.
The nonprofit used to give food directly to residents and also give food to partner nonprofits who help residents with meals and groceries. But with many of these partners boosting services, Second Harvest said it can stop its alleyway and mobile food distributions in Clark County.
"We have 30 partner agencies in Clark County alone. These are food pantries, a lot of times in churches, they may be soup kitchens or other feeding area locations," Irick said. "And we support them, we act as their distribution point. We bring the food in and we share it with them so that they can distribute it more locally."
The agency will offer more direct distribution in Champaign and Logan counties where they have fewer agencies and a more rural population.
This also lets Second Harvest focus more on giving food to residents in Champagne and Logan counties.
“We are halting mobile distributions in Clark County. However, we are considering where we might increase our mobile distributions in Champagne and Logan counties, which would be direct service," Irick said. "And part of the reason for that is to make the food access more equitable in the three counties.”
According to Irick, there are more than 60 partner agencies across all three counties.
"With Logan County we have, in Quincy, Ohio, Buckeye Gospel Barn, and they probably see 400 families a month — So they have a pretty big operation," he said. "In Champaign County, right in Urbana, we have The Warehouse and they're a pretty big operation. We have the Caring Kitchen in Champagne County and we have, back to Logan County, St Vincent de Paul in Bellefontaine."
The food bank will still offer its 16 food lockers and serve neighbors on Wednesdays through the order ahead program.
“We're here to serve three counties, not just one," Irick said. "And so we need to make sure that we're getting the food out equitably to – our entire service area. And it's very expensive for us to do the direct distribution.”
Irick said the organization's website shares information on its work in all three counties it serves. This includes its order ahead program, and an up-to-date calendar for all the agencies in all three counties that are serving, when they serve, day and time, and the address and phone number for that agency."
