Dublin Food Pantry Loses Access to Fresh Produce and Dairy After Regional Food Bank Pauses Key Program

Families who depend on the Dublin Food Pantry are going without fresh produce, milk, eggs and meat this month after the Mid-Ohio Food Collective paused its Shop Thru program through August.

The pause "limits our access to critical fresh foods like produce and dairy," the pantry said in its August newsletter. "Items such as milk, eggs, and meat will become even less consistent."

The timing compounds the strain families already face at the end of summer, when children lose access to school breakfasts and lunches and back-to-school costs pile up. USDA research has found that 45% of households with children living near a summer meal site were food insecure, compared with 14% of households with children nationally.

The Dublin Food Pantry now serves roughly 65 households per day when open, drawing from residents of the City of Dublin and the Dublin City School District. "Local food pantries like ours — and the people we serve — are bracing for serious challenges," the pantry warned.

A growing suburb, a growing need

Demand at the pantry has surged. The organization served 2,744 unique households in 2023, up from a baseline of 825 in an earlier period, and logged 10,487 household visits in 2025 — a cumulative count of service instances, not unique households. In all, the pantry provided 631,041 meals that year.

That growth came even as Dublin's population held essentially flat — 49,456 residents as of July 1, 2024, compared with a 2020 census count of 49,328. More than 4,700 Dublin households live on less than $35,000 annually, and nearly 16% of Dublin students are economically disadvantaged. A City of Dublin community health needs assessment puts about 2% of residents at or below the federal poverty level, about 2% of children in poverty, and 2.6% of households receiving SNAP benefits — against a median household income of $143,533.

Dublin spans Franklin and Delaware counties, which have markedly different food insecurity rates. Franklin County's stood at 13.5% in 2024, representing 177,730 food-insecure residents, according to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks; Delaware County's rate is 8.3%, according to HDPulse data.

State budget cuts squeeze the pipeline

The Shop Thru pause appears to be a temporary supply-management response as state and federal budget cuts shrink the food bank's inventory, particularly perishables. Through the program, partner agencies normally select free perishable foods on a scheduled, first-come basis during Monday and Tuesday windows from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m.

In July 2025, the Mid-Ohio Food Collective warned that Ohio's state budget cuts would strip roughly $3 million worth of food from its shelves over two years by rolling food bank funding back to 2019 levels. The enacted 2026–2027 state budget reduced food bank funding statewide from approximately $32.5 million to $24.55 million per year, below what food bank advocates had requested.

The collective, which works with more than 600 partner agencies across 20 central and eastern Ohio counties, said recent government cuts have reduced its food budget and forced difficult choices, including providing less food to partner pantries and cutting availability of shelf-stable items such as pasta, canned goods and other staples.

How to help

The question the pause raises is whether the regional food infrastructure that Dublin's pantry relies on is keeping pace with a fast-growing suburb's need — and what coordination exists to prevent a single program interruption from leaving families without fresh food during the highest-risk month of the year.

Residents who want to close the gap can act now. The Dublin Food Pantry, at 6608 Dublin Center Dr., accepts non-perishable donations from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily; perishable garden donations are accepted Monday through Thursday only. Volunteers age 16 and older can sign up for roles including kitchen crew, customer service, loading and unloading deliveries, sorting and repackaging food, and driving the transport team route for perishable donations.

Budget cuts at the state level slashed millions from the food bank network. The pantry's client rolls have more than tripled. And as of this month, the pipeline delivering fresh food to Dublin families is paused — with no public timeline for when it resumes.