The Thanksgiving holiday is known to include tables full of food, but with Ohioans still feeling the effects of federal cuts to SNAP and food banks still bending under the weight of demand, for some the table won’t be quite as full.

The federal government’s shutdown and the hold-up it caused for existing SNAP benefits didn’t help matters. The Ohio Association of Foodbanks served 46% more people at state food pantries from Nov. 1 to Nov. 21 than it had on average in each of the previous months this year.

“This situation underscored the critical importance of SNAP as the first line of defense against hunger for many families, seniors, and disabled Ohioans that would regularly face food budget shortfalls without support from SNAP,” Joree Novotny, executive director of the association, told

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