Sen. Vance visits Greater Cleveland Food Bank as discussions continue over raising U.S. debt ceiling

CLEVELAND — As discussions over the U.S. debt ceiling continue in Washington, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) took time out to tour the Greater Cleveland Food Bank Tuesday.

“I think this place is really a testament to the partnership that can exist between government, the corporate sector, and of course the non-profit sector,” Vance said.

That balance was on display Tuesday as Vance met with Food Bank leaders in one room, then volunteers from Walsh Jesuit helping to prepare boxes of food to soon be distributed to Northeast Ohio families in need. In the front lobby, the Ohio Pork Council was presenting a check for $5,000. Donations of time and money are key to their work.

“Fighting hunger, solving hunger is not something food banks can do alone,” said Food Bank President and CEO Kristin Warzoch. “Even with an incredibly generous community and literally thousands of partner agencies, it needs to be a public-private partnership.”

Vance said that was part of the reason for his visit.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of food insecurity in this country right now because of high food prices, because we’re still recovering, I think, from the economic consequences of the pandemic. We still have a lot of people who need food support. That includes our seniors, people who through no fault of their own are struggling to feed themselves, and that includes a lot of children in the greater Cleveland area.

“So this place is doing important work. I think we’ve got to make sure it continues to be able to do that important work, and that’s one of the reasons I was here, to understand the challenges and also the opportunities a little bit better,” Vance said.

One area where food banks like Cleveland have benefited in recent years has been with money from COVID relief funds and ARPA, or the American Rescue Plan, which has helped them meet the high demand and little space.

“We have benefited from what we call ARPA (American Relief Plan Act) dollars,” said Warzocha. “We’re already putting them to use. ARPA dollars helped us build this building…ARPA dollars, we hope, will help us with the second phase of our expansion, which is going to help move people out of poverty and out of food insecurity.”

As the debt ceiling negotiations continue in Washington, though, the clawback of unused COVID funds is one of the items Republican house members want to see happen. Vance believes with the pandemic over, the emergency relief measures need to stop. But he believes there is a way to do that that doesn’t hurt places like the Cleveland Food Bank.

“Certainly, we need to support our local food banks and other folks as well, but we need to do that in a way where we have a conversation about the appropriations process. We don’t let just money out there, linger out there and not actually think seriously about how we spend the taxpayers’ resources.”

Both the Republican Vance and his fellow Ohio Senator Democrat Sherrod Brown tell News 5 they don’t believe the U.S. will end up defaulting, but they differ on an approach to a solution.

“House Republicans have offered a plan; you can pick nits in that particular plan. I’m sure that every House Republican who voted for that plan would identify in it things that they themselves don’t like, but it’s at least a starting off point for the negotiation,” Vance said. That last word — negotiation — is one that separates Ohio’s two senators.

“This isn’t a negotiation,” said Brown. “This is, let’s pass this and pay — these are bills due in the past. Pay our debts, don’t be a deadbeat nation. We never have been. Then we’ll talk about all of these things. We can talk about what we do with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), we can talk about the Farm Bill, we can negotiate on Social Security, we can do all of these things.”

It’s these negotiations that the folks at the food bank hope will reinforce SNAP and the work that it does.

“For every meal provided by a food bank, the SNAP program provides nine,” said Warzocha. “We can’t make up for cuts to SNAP.”