COLUMBUS, Ohio – Food deserts exist in every state. However, in a nine-county, 10,000-square-mile area of central Ohio, you’re not likely to find a shortage of fresh and plentiful produce.

One large and creative food bank is on a mission to end hunger one nourishing meal at a time while co-creating communities where everyone thrives. The organization is Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC) and it was founded in 1980. It is the state’s largest foodbank. MOFC provides more than 170,000 meals each day for hungry people in these counties.

“In the beginning it was our mission to feed hungry people in our community,” said President and CEO Matt Habash. Initially it was, in Habash’s words, like “wholesalers supplying the retailers.” MOFC’s job was to find food and grocery products and distribute that to other 501 (c)(3) organizations who feed the hungry.

“We were the central warehouse that distributed food to the pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters,” Habash said.

That was then. Over the last decade the organization has shifted focus on getting to know those they serve better. Its efforts go far beyond procuring and delivering food, focusing also on developing ways to create a hunger-free, healthier community.

“Our mission statement changed to ‘ending hunger one nourishing meal at a time and co-creating a community where everyone thrives’,” Habash said. “It was the second half of that statement that really was about, ‘OK, we can feed you today, but we need to address the root causes of why you are hungry.’”

MOFC has 680 agency partners (pantries) throughout Ohio and relies on the help of 13,000 volunteers a year. More than half the volunteers come from corporate space. Farmers in these counties also play their part, as many have donated fruits and vegetables to MOFC’s pantries.

“My dream was to go out of business. I was hoping we didn’t need foodbanks anymore,” Habash said. “Food banking as an industry was just getting started back then. I was hoping we weren’t going to be needed, but unfortunately, it’s gone in the opposite direction.”

Habash saw the future of MOFC rooted in five key areas: the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Mid-Ohio Farm, Mid-Ohio Farmacy, Mid-Ohio Kitchen and Mid-Ohio Market.

The Mid-Ohio Foodbank was established in 1980 with the goal of supplying fresh, healthy food to individuals in the 20 counties served. In 2013, the Mid-Ohio Farm was created and MOFC transformed vacant sites in many communities into smart farms that can educate and engage about foods’ impact on health.

In 2015, the Mid-Ohio Kitchen was formed, one which produces healthy food for afterschool sites and for those experiencing homelessness. In these kitchens are prepared nutritious, ready-to-eat meals for children, seniors and others in the community. These kitchens cook, plate, box up and cater.

In 2019 the Mid-Ohio Farmacy was formed, bridging the gap between healthcare and access to nutritious food. This program allows healthcare providers to “prescribe” fresh food, which can be redeemed to get fresh food at pantry and market locations.

The latest MOFC innovation is Mid-Ohio Farm on the Hilltop, which opened in the spring of 2022 and offers fresh ways for urban produce for the MOFC.

Urban gardening is nothing new, but the MOFC is going a step further with its Hilltop operation by growing urban produce with no soil. The Hilltop farm on Wheatland Avenue (three miles west of downtown Columbus) uses a variety of methods to grow produce, both with and without soil.

Hilltop’s Verti-Grow planters are stacked with five Styrofoam pots on top of one another, with 200 such planters, each of which can produce up to 25 plants in one square foot.

“What we’re able to grow in this space is five to 10 times what you could do in conventional in-ground growing,” said Mike Hochron, the food collective’s senior vice president of communication.

In addition to the Verti-Grow planters are GardenSoxx, a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to in-ground growing. This planting method uses 70 percent less water than traditional in-ground growing.

A further feature of the Hilltop farm is the greenhouse hydroponic space, where farm director Trevor Horn said he hopes to foster workforce development.

Within this greenhouse, there are 36 troughs, each with a water channel. The channels are sourced from a 120-gallon pool, which is refilled weekly. Included is an acid wash, a fertilization barrel and calcium nitrate, which are used to grow plants without soil.

The plants are transported to a food market as soon as they are harvested and made available at once. The plants will be sent to a shop style pantry, where families can go and shop as if they were in a grocery store. MOFC has eight market locations in Columbus, Reynoldsburg, Grove City and Bladensburg.

Food banks are here to stay, but Habash has hopes for a better future.

“I’m hoping as a nation that we come together and address why people are hungry in America,” he said. “Food insecurity has nothing to do with food. We have plenty of food in this country. I’m hoping that we in America decide we don’t have hunger in this country. But in order to do that we have to go up stream and address tough issues. Housing is one main reason people come to us. Housing costs continue to rise. Then there’s day care issues, transportation issues, the cost of insurance continues to climb. As a result of all this we see more and more people showing up at our doorsteps. All this leaves them not enough left for food.”

For more information about MOFC call 614-277-3663.