Libraries and Food Banks Team Up to Feed Northeast Ohio Families

Jennifer Wilson figured that when she went back to work as a waitress, her days of visiting the food bank were behind her. But on a sunny afternoon in late April, she found herself in the middle of a long line of cars snaking around the back of the Brook Park library, waiting for a couple of bags of groceries.

“I can’t go into a grocery store and spend less than $100, and I walk out with practically nothing,” she says. “It’s insane. I try to coupon. I follow sales. It doesn’t matter. The cost of living expenses, especially when you have kids; it’s astronomical.”

Wilson used to qualify for food assistance, but when she went back to work, she lost that aid. Paradoxically, she says she now has less money to spend on groceries than when she wasn’t working.

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Wilson was in one of 135 cars that stopped by the Brook Park library that day, far above what the staff was expecting for the first mobile food pantry of the season. The Brook Park library is a branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library system, which operates a series of drive-through food banks in the suburbs. Everyone I spoke to waiting in line said the same things: They keep hoping things will get better, but between inflation, the government shutdown last fall and rising gas prices, the cost of living is increasingly unaffordable.

Without the aid of food banks, “we wouldn’t make it,” Wilson says.

The library system operates mobile food pantries at the Parma-Snow branch, Brook Park and Garfield Heights. They also have programs for senior citizens, free meals for kids after school at 10 locations, and summer lunches at 11 branches.

The programs are run by library staff and volunteers. Many of those volunteers are retirees, the type who can’t sit still and want to spend their golden years giving back.

“I just like keeping busy helping people, and just thankful that I can help others,” Pat Kubek says while bagging oranges. Nancy Jirousek, her orange-bagging partner, says that after retiring, she found this volunteer opportunity through the library’s website.

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“Food insecurity has always been an issue that I feel strongly about, so here I am,” she says. “You don’t think that it’s in your backyard, but it is. You don’t know what’s going on in somebody’s life.”

The library system’s food programs run in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank; the food bank provides the food, and the library handles the logistics.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank has a network of more than 1,000 partners in its six-county service area that help meet the needs of Northeast Ohioans. Many of those churches, libraries, schools, health care centers and community organizations rely on volunteers to keep their pantries and hot meal sites running. The Food Bank itself gets help from 16,000 volunteers annually.

“This whole system, and frankly nationally, systems of hunger relief are very reliant on people donating their time and volunteering in their own neighborhood or volunteering at a food bank to make sure that food for their neighbors is available,” says president and CEO Kristin Warzocha.

Food banks are trying to meet an ever-increasing demand with fewer resources. Despite cuts from the state and federal governments, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank served 404,000 individuals last year — more than during the height of the pandemic.

The food bank is also experiencing the same price increases that are leading many people to seek food assistance in the first place, an inflation-induced hunger spiral that just keeps spreading. Warzocha says during the pandemic, it served many folks who were suddenly out of a job. These days, they’re serving people working full-time jobs who still can’t make ends meet.

“The fact is that food insecurity is everywhere,” Warzocha says.

In Cuyahoga County, 62% of the individuals served last year were in the suburbs. The greatest increases in demand were in the 44139 and 44140 zip codes: Solon, Bay Village and Rocky River. Further afield, Lake County has also seen a dramatic increase in the need for food assistance. The food bank serves people who are at 200% of the poverty level or below. That means folks need to make less than about $32,000 for an individual or $66,000 for a family of four to be eligible.

“A lot of folks we know that we may work with, that we interact with every day, are struggling,” Warzocha says. “The good news is there are a lot of people who care and who want to make sure that there’s help available.”

The Euclid Hunger Center, another Greater Cleveland Food Bank suburban partner, serves about 500 families each month, including 26 to 30 new families per month.

“These are people who, to our knowledge, have never even used a food pantry,” says Kay O’Donnell, Euclid Hunger Center’s managing director. “It’s a big step when you go from ‘We’re struggling a little bit’ to ‘We need this, or we’re not going to make it.’”

O’Donnell says they rely on 15 volunteers to staff their biweekly food pantries. Many have been volunteering for over a decade.

Read more: Food Pantries in the Cleveland Area

Lisa Mobley has been unloading delivery trucks and organizing the storeroom for over 13 years.

“I think of it as sort of a free gym membership,” she says. “And that back room is really warm, so it comes with a sauna.”

Mobley says she’s worked here through four different jobs, and she’s kept it up after recently retiring. What keeps her coming back are the other volunteers and the folks coming in for help.

“It really is like a little neighborhood unto itself,” she says. While she’s talking, folks are loading up grocery bags with fresh strawberries, raw meat, canned veggies and boxes of cookies. Each table of food has a volunteer or two behind it, and a hand-painted sign helping people find exactly what they need. Another room has cleaning supplies and hygiene products available, along with a table of books where kids can read.

Over the years, Mobley says she’s seen people cry with relief.

“It’s nice to be able to help them out and to see that relaxation when they realize that they’re taken care of,” she says. “It’s worth it to be able to see that on someone’s face.”

Most of the volunteers at the Euclid Hunger Center are wearing purple shirts with the pantry’s tagline on them: “neighbors helping neighbors.”

As Warzocha put it, “Thank God for good neighbors.”

How You Can Help

When someone needs help, even in 2026, often the first place they turn to is the local library. That’s how the Cuyahoga County Public Library system got into the work of food assistance in 2010.

“Our customers come to us when they’re in need, and they come to us when they’re vulnerable, and that’s something that never changes about libraries, but something that we’re very respectful of,” says Rebecca Ranallo, the Literacy and Learning director.

Even if no one has asked you for help, neighbors all around us are in need. If you’d like to do more, here are a few options:

Make a Financial Contribution

Given all the funding cuts that food banks have faced recently, one of the best ways folks can help alleviate hunger in their communities is through a monetary donation. “We can stretch a donated dollar a lot farther than if someone goes to a local supermarket,” says  Kristin Warzocha, Greater Cleveland Food Bank CEO.

Schedule a Time to Volunteer

Partner organizations like libraries and churches rely on volunteers to staff hot meal sites and run food pantries. At the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, volunteers sort through donated food, make meals for kids and seniors in the production kitchen, and staff the community resource center.

Donate NonPerishable Items

The food bank relies on donations from the food industry at scale, but they also accept nonperishable food items, food drive donations and nonfood items like paper products.

If you need assistance, you can call the food bank’s help line at 216-738-2067. You can also find all of their pantry sites and suburban partners via an interactive map on their website.

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