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Tough Winter For Low Income Ohioans

Yesterday's brief but intense snowfall served as a reminder for people who work with low-income Ohioans that this winter has been especially hard. 

Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler explains.

This winter has been tough for anyone who’s had to make their way through it to go to work or to school. But for low-income Ohioans, it’s been especially difficult – some lost pay and even had to risk their jobs to take time off when school was cancelled, and spikes in gas prices have hurt. And Lisa Hamler-Fugitt with the Ohio Association of Food Banks says the pain keeps coming. 

“Now these high heating bills are hitting our mailboxes. Families who earn low incomes, seniors and persons with disabilities on fixed incomes are now opening these utility bills and are literally in shock.” 

And she says groups that work with people in poverty weren’t spared. Schools lost money when they weren’t reimbursed for food bought for free and reduced priced meals that were never served.  And food banks have had to scramble and spend when the polar vortex and the western drought made finding fresh produce a challenge.