Sanyal Pursues Food Access Project

Vorys Attorney Anna Sanyal and Bridget Tharp of the Mid-Ohio Food Collective have begun to pursue a project which would provide Ohio families with access to fresh produce 24/7.

The story states:

"It’s been a tough 12 months of pandemic life for so many Ohio families who’ve lost jobs, struggled to collect unemployment and seen their income slashed. New families who have never before needed food assistance represented more than 30 percent of those served by the Mid-Ohio Food Collective during 2020—usually it’s 5 percent, Tharp says.

That’s nearly 200,000 households served across the organization’s 20-county footprint, with 50 percent of them in Franklin County. It took courage for those families to seek help despite the stigma. Unfair, incorrect assumptions about people who rely on food pantries abound.

Tharp and Sanyal envision a series of community refrigerators that are unstaffed and filled with fresh produce. They would be open 24/7, helping people whose work and child care schedules do not permit them to visit pantries. The program could draw from models successfully implemented in Houston, Los Angeles and New York City, and would be in collaboration with community partners like restaurants and, of course, the food collective."

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