A report that follows nationwide and local food insecurity numbers is showing that hunger is on the rise.
The 2026 Map the Meal Gap report draws from 2024 data to allow for two years of collection and analysis.
Through the report, individuals peruse statistics on the Feeding America website that show detailed reports from small communities to the nation as a whole.
"When you log on, you can compare it to previous years, you could compare national and local. And when you look at those statistics, it will break it down by age, as well as race and ethnicity," said Amber Wright, developmental director for The Foodbank Inc. in Dayton.
Map the Meal Gap's most recent analysis revealed that more than 4,000 people in the Foodbank Inc.'s coverage counties are newly food insecure, and that’s in line with the national trends.
Wright said demand has reflected this data in recent years at their food pantries.
“More people have been accessing our services over the past few years so we were not surprised to see that rates of hunger had risen in the same way," she said.
More than one in seven people in the Foodbank's counties are food insecure, which accounts for over 118,000 people.
Rates are even higher for children, showing that one in five kids are food insecure.
"All of our sister food banks in the state of Ohio are reporting similar trends, and none of us are surprised by it because, again, our service numbers are also correlating with the trend that we're seeing from Map the Meal Gap," Wright said.
According to Wright, food insecurity rates have continued to rise after temporary pandemic programs were rescinded. And those rates were actually at their lowest compared to recent years during the height of the pandemic in 2021.
“Things like the expanded SNAP, the expanded child tax care credit, and the stimulus payments were actually effective in lowering rates of hunger," she said. "And so what this tells us is that when things like SNAP eligibility continue to change in the future unless people have access to that benefit, we can anticipate seeing more need again.”
As uncertainty builds around the future of SNAP in Ohio following the move to place more financial responsibility on individual counties implementing the food assistance program, Wright said they will prepare for an increased demand.
"We are concerned about the need continuing to rise over the next few years but we're also grateful that we have a really good relationship with our local partners, especially Montgomery County," she said. "We are doing what we can to prepare. We've redoubled our fundraising efforts. We're trying to get more creative in the ways that we work with our donors and corporate partners and getting people involved."
Wright said they will continue to use this data to inform how they respond to food insecurity in their service area while working with community partners to ensure their service area does not go hungry.
"While this is an upsetting trend, this is our day-to-day work. So if you find yourself in need, please absolutely still come to us," Wright said. "If you feel like you need help, and this is gonna help you feel secure in your day-to-day and make up for any kind of funds that you're losing, absolutely come see us."
As part of this effort, the organization’s new community building will soon be able to provide dedicated services through community health workers, SNAP application assistance and more.
"This is providing a meeting space so our community health workers now have a dedicated area to meet with people who might need ongoing services," Wright said. "We are standing up other programs for more wraparound services as well. This building just got stood up so we're still flushing those out and we also want to do it gradually enough that we can make sure that any programs that we develop are going sustainable and effective."
