GREENVILLE - In January, Governor John Kasich signed an executive order to provide an extra $1.5 million to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Grace Resurrection Community Center (GRCC) is seeing the fruits of that order, among other foods, said Tina Osso, director of Shared Harvest, a branch of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

“[The Ohio Association of Foodbanks] alerted us that we had additional funds with which to purchase food through their shopping lists. They contact vendors, get the best prices on items, and then make those items available to us to purchase with the additional money,” said Osso. “We purchased fresh eggs, frozen ground beef, frozen turkey sausage, and fresh potatoes, onions and apples.”

Those additional foods are then sent to Grace Resurrection Community Center, among other locations in Shared Harvest’s five-county radius, which includes Darke, Preble, Butler, Warren and Miami Counties, said Osso. The additional $1.5 million, distributed throughout the state of Ohio, will provide additional resources through June, Osso remarked.

Last year Shared Harvest distributed 6.5 million pounds of food to their five-county constituency, Osso commented. Of that 6.5 million pounds of food, 1 million pounds was fresh produce provided by the Ohio Agricultural Clearance Program, said Osso, the other 5.5 million pounds of food was shelf-stable products, non-perishable products such as canned vegetables and shelf-stable milk.

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