CLEVELAND — Roughly 3 1/2 years later, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank is ending its drive-thru food distributions in the Muni Lot. Now, those who need assistance can instead go to the all-new Community Resource Center on South Waterloo Road.
The drive-thru method first began in March of 2020, shortly after Ohio's stay-at-home order was issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food Bank President and CEO Kristin Warzocha remembers the National Guard helping give out food in the beginning.
"It is a distribution method that worked particularly well during the pandemic, and the need since then has just been so high, it's been hard to bring it to an end," Warzocha told 3News Thursday. "But now, we truly have a better option with our new community resource center."
Warzocha says the center will be able to serve as many or more people as the Muni Lot distributions, adding her belief that it will help address hunger long term.
"Anyone who's still in need of food can go to that center and find a wonderful variety of resources, including a shopping market where they can choose the food they like for their families as well as 15 other nonprofits on site to help address the underlying causes of food insecurity," she explained.
The need for food assistance remains high in Northeast Ohio: In their last fiscal year ending in September, Warzocha says the food bank and its partners have served more than 400,000 people, 100,000 of whom needed emergency food for the first time.
"It's been a great survival tactic with the fresh vegetables, the meat," client Anna Melendez said of the Muni Lot gatherings. "It's been great. I'm going to miss it, but I don't mind going to Waterloo Road, either."
Melendez tells us she is disabled and has frequently gone to the drive-thru distribution to pick up food for herself and others. She's not the only one who will miss the distributions — volunteers WKYC spoke with described the day as "bittersweet."
"I'm a little sad because I'll miss the outdoors and I'll miss the clients," longtime volunteer Sherlene Morihisa admitted. "But I'm also happy because they opened their new marketplace on 152nd and Waterloo."
Morihisa is one of the most consistent and longstanding volunteers at the Muni Lot distributions, according to the food bank.
"I'm happy because I'm helping someone else," she stated. "And my parents always said, 'When you have enough, help somebody else.'"
Ron Rydzewski is another standout volunteer.
"When they first opened up 3 1/2 years ago, I came right on as soon as possible," he said.
Many volunteers have helped the Muni Lot serve about 115,000 individuals and distribute 19 million pounds of food over 164 distributions.
"Unfortunately, the need is still incredibly high," Warzocha said. "While a lot of people did go back to work after the spike at the beginning of the pandemic, we have a lot of people in our community who are working at low-paying jobs and trying to feed a family. And because of higher costs, higher food costs, higher fuel costs, higher rent and utilities, they just are in a position where they are struggling to make ends meet."
Warzocha says people can drop by the Community Resource Center without an appointment, and can also turn to the Greater Cleveland Regional Food Bank's network of 1,000 partner agencies.