As a startling number of students visit school pantries in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, schools in Northeast Ohio are seeing their own spikes in demand.

“Kids come into the buildings and just mention things to teachers and staff members about different food they don’t have at home, or they’re worried they won’t have food for dinner,” said Shaina Shardy, school and family community liaison at Warren City School District. “It’s very, very hard to see, but I know here, when the kids are here, we’re able to feed them and send them home with food.”

Many districts have a food pantry inside one, or several, of their school buildings. Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley says it currently operates at about three dozen school sites serving hundreds of students, and United Way of Youngs

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