Free food distribution Friday

NORWALK — Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio will hold a free food distribution from noon until 3 p.m. Friday at the Huron County Fairgrounds. The food bank received notice that the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has approved a request from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for a Disaster Household Distribution Program. This will allow Ohio regional food banks to distribute emergency food boxes to residents impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak under disaster status. This program will allow Second Harvest to serve the large number of first-time clients seeking help during this crisis without putting workers or recipients at risk. During standard distributions, food bank are required to register all first-time users requiring close person-to-person contact to collect items like name, address and household demographics and more. Drivers are asked to empty their trunks and they can receive food up to three households, said Susan Bartosch of Second Harvest. The questions will be as minimal as possible to protect social distancing. The driver will then move on where 15 members of the National Guard will load them up. In the boxes will be non-perishable food, refrigerator and freezer products and produce. "This is the best way to get people in and out and keep their social distancing," Bartosch said. In the past we have had 100 cars lined up so handling the traffic will be the Huron County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The response has been elevated to disaster status across the state. This will give food banks the tools and flexibility to carry out their vital mission safely and effectively, Bartosch said. By shifting to no-touch services like mass drive-through distributions, foodbanks are using every disaster response tool available to respond to the need for help with emergency food and supplies, while mitigating community spread and protecting the health of limited and essential workforce, she added. "We want to thank the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for its leadership in seeking this flexibility for Ohio's hunger relief network," said Julie Chase-Morefield, president and CEO of Second Harvest. "With so many people out of work, lack of food is a new reality for them. We are here to provide that emergency help, and now we can offer help without putting these families or our staff, site volunteers and the National Guard at risk." Second Harvest serves Crawford, Erie, Huron and Lorain counties.