Across Cincinnati, St. Vincent de Paul’s Catino pantry and its neighborhood counterparts are seeing food fly out faster than volunteers can load it onto shelves. The nonprofit served more than 134,400 people in 2025 and says pantry visits have jumped roughly 300% since the COVID-19 pandemic, draining supplies of meat, produce and basic household items. City programs and regional food banks are scrambling to keep pace as families juggle rent, utilities and the rising cost of groceries.
Pantries running on empty
Staff at St. Vincent de Paul describe the shift as both sharp and relentless. “We’re flying through our inventory,” Vice President Kaytlynd Lainhart told reporters. As reported by Cincinnati CityBeat, SVDP provided more than $7 million worth of food in 2025, and about 81% of the people it serves live within Cincinnati ZIP codes. The nonprofit also told City Council it received roughly $144,000 in local support for the year after Lainhart went before officials to request additional funds.
Regional foodbank stretched
The strain is not confined to city limits. The Freestore Foodbank reports distributing about 47.2 million meals each year through nearly 579 partner agencies across 20 counties. Its impact report notes that more than 274,000 people in the service region are food insecure, including roughly 82,000 children. Local coverage quoted Freestore president Kurt Reiber saying the organization saw about a 35% year-over-year increase in the amount of food it distributed. That spike has pushed pantries and food banks to pay more for staple items and lean harder on volunteers and small donors just to keep shelves from going bare.
City tests grocery credits and builds food hubs
City Hall is trying targeted, short-term fixes to blunt the crunch. A 12-month pilot in Winton Hills offers up to 200 families $100 a month to spend on groceries through Kroger, with free delivery included. The program opened in December 2025 and is about half full, CityBeat reported. Separately, the city’s Office of Human Services announced an $850,000 Impact Award to create urban farms and neighborhood food hubs in areas hit hardest by violence, with planned hub sites in Avondale, East Price Hill and the West End, according to the city’s announcement.
Policy pressures widen the gap
Nonprofit leaders say federal policy shifts are turning a hard situation into something even more fragile. Analysis from the Urban Institute finds recent federal changes will cut roughly $186 billion from SNAP over the coming decade, a move experts warn could push more households toward emergency food providers. National research from Feeding America shows that tens of millions of Americans remain food insecure, underscoring that Cincinnati’s surge in pantry traffic is part of a much larger national pattern…