Navigating the landscape of food insecurity
By Hayley Luby
Miami University journalism student
Each year, roughly 44 million people in the United States experience food insecurity, unable to provide a meal for themselves or their family each day.
Food insecurity impacts people from cradle to grave globally, and is tied to a lack of income, affordable housing and employment opportunities.
Ohio’s food insecurity rate has reached 11.8%, about the national average, and Butler County has hit 10%.
In Oxford, where more than 1,000 children in the local Talawanda School District experience food insecurity, local organizations have worked to combat this issue and provide nutritious meals for people in the community.
A growing need
Located at 5445 College Corner Pike sits the Talawanda Oxford Pantry & Social Services, TOPSS, which serves food-insecure residents in the City of Oxford.
TOPSS began in 2007 by simply handing out food boxes to families in need, before creating its full-service location.
Now, families and individuals can shop or receive curbside pick-up once a week at the TOPSS location. To help prioritize their needs, clients fill out a form indicating specific items they wish to have in their pantry.
Executive Director Sherry Martin says the organization aims to get food on the table. This is made possible by the large number of student and community volunteers.
Martin says the days are getting busier, as food is now more expensive.
“When I first started here we had around 12 curbside shoppers on a busy night. Now a busy night would be around 60 people,” Martin says. “We went from having a base of 300 clients to last year we served 1,029 households. We have grown a lot and I think that has to do with the rising cost of everything … living, food.”
The USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan” for March 2024 suggests that a family of four — including two adults and two children — should plan on spending almost $1,000 on groceries in a month.
As the demand for services grows, Martin says TOPSS has been fortunate to receive most of its funding from individual donations and grants. Situated close to Miami University, the college brings in many donors, with retired professors and other community members contributing frequently.
In 2022, the organization received $100,000 in individual donations, $300,000 from the city, and $1.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to help build a new location in the future.
“We are just so fortunate to be in this community where people are giving,” Martin says. “The people in the community always come through.”
According to Martin, most people they serve come from a single-family or two-person home and receive stipends of around $23 weekly for food, not making ends meet.
The Family Resource Center, located behind TOPSS, has a similar mission providing families in the area with clothing, food and funding for their household needs.
“It would be a big thing for us to merge with the Family Resource Center and become a one-stop shop where people can come in and have this holistic approach of what do you need, you need food, okay here is the food,” Martin says. “We can say what is causing you to be food insecure and can we help or can we help you find a job or prevent you from being evicted.”
Martin recently shared plans with the Oxford City Council for a planned merger with the Family Resource Center.
TOPSS hopes to eventually incorporate temporary housing at its College Corner Pike location to accommodate all the needs of its clientele.
Serving seniors
Volunteer Coordinator at Oxford Seniors and Meals on Wheels Jennifer Marcum says food insecurity looks the same at her organizations.
Having been with Oxford Seniors since 2003, Marcum has done several things to fight the issue locally, mainly for the elderly.
“Some of the issues are low income, but there are other factors too,” Marcum says. “Some of it could be mental issues, or physical issues that they have where they physically can’t stand in the kitchen and prepare a meal for themselves.”
Meals on Wheels began in the early 1980s with local doctors’ wives who gathered, made food and sent it out. Shortly after, Oxford Seniors took over where hot meals were provided through McCullough Hyde-Memorial Hospital. The organization has run it the same ever since.
Each day of the week meals are packaged and delivered by volunteers to 54 clients, servicing a section of Butler County that covers Oxford, Riley, Okeana, Somerville, Darrtown and Collinsville.
Typically, four to six routes are driven by community volunteers in their personal vehicles. While hot meals are provided on weekdays, frozen meals can be delivered for the weekend.
Food is provided at little to no cost for clients over 60 who are homebound and unable to provide a nutritious meal for themselves.
“We do ask for donations but it’s just suggested at $4 per meal,” Marcum says. “Some people donate the full amount, some do $2, some do $10, or nothing at all.”
In addition to Meals on Wheels, Oxford Seniors also organizes a daily congregate lunch hosted at the senior center, which attracts anywhere from 25 to 60 people. The meal served Monday through Thursday is the same as Meals on Wheels and on Friday community members share a potluck meal.
According to attendees, the luncheon provides them with a sense of community, friendship and happiness throughout the week.
The congregate meal is also free of charge, with only a suggested donation in place.
Marcum says the hope is to bring in as many community members as possible to put food on their plates and allow packaged meals to be taken home for later in the week.
Along with the congregate lunches are Wednesday night dinners at five churches in Oxford — Methodist, Lutheran, St. Mary’s, Holy Trinity and Presbyterian.
Each church is assigned one Wednesday of the month to host an open meal consisting of dinner, salad, dessert and dry goods. All items are available to take home.
Bill Fisher, organizer of the Presbyterian Church dinner, says that some people are reluctant to take anything home.
“For some people, they don’t want it made known that they need help so it makes it hard for people to show up and say I need food,” Fisher says. “We try to make it as comfortable for people but they don’t want to be the first person in line to take food home.”
The age of attendees ranges from infants to the elderly, as the faith communities aim to reach as many people as possible each week.
A need for nutrition
Another collective meal is offered at Oxford Seniors each month, but this one works to educate people about nutrition as it feeds them.
“We found through a survey that there were so many people in the community that were only getting one meal per day or cutting back on food so they could afford that one meal,” Miami University kinesiology and nutrition professor Nancy Parkinson says. “Maybe their resources did not last or their paycheck didn’t last an entire month so they were coming up short on purchasing food.”
After realizing this in 2022, Parkinson gathered together the five churches already feeding the community to discuss a plan to further met those individuals’ nutritional needs.
They eventually decided to serve a dinner once a month at Oxford Seniors, open to anyone in the community. The hope was that having it at a more neutral location would encourage more people to come in.
The first meal was hosted in September 2022 by Parkinson, with the help of her nutrition students, serving 39 people. By December of that year, 120 people attended, and by 2024 the number had grown to over 200.
With grant funding and local sponsorships available, community members with varying financial and physical needs can attend free of cost. When gathered, attendees also learn about nutrition.
“We asked people what they like about this and they talked about food and friendship,” Parkinson says. “They like meeting friends or eating meals and sharing that time together.”
With a focus on mental health and well-being, Parkinson and the Department of Nutrition and Kinesiology continue to prepare these monthly meals for those in need.
“There are people from all walks of life that are coming to this meal.”
Soup lunch for the community
Looking at the year ahead, Oxford Empty Bowls, another local organization, plans to host its annual lunch at the Oxford Community Arts Center. In years past, hundreds of community members have lined up to purchase a locally created bowl and eat soup made by Oxford residents.
Throughout the year, local schools and pottery shops like Talawanda High School and You’re Fired prepare bowls for November’s meal.
Organizing chair Kourtney Spaulding works year-round to make the event happen.
“There are so many bowls in our community that are currently empty and we need to do more to find ways to fill people’s bowls up,” she says.
In 2023, Oxford Empty Bowls raised more than $16,000 for local organizations tackling food insecurity.
The 2024 event will be held on Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Oxford Community Arts Center.
