When deep funding cuts to Community Development Block Grants shuttered the kitchen at Toledo’s largest family homeless shelter, the community lost a valuable resource. Today, thanks in part to the Northwest Ohio Piping Industry, Family House has a new kitchen and shelter residents no longer have to wonder where they will get their next meal.
With the capability to house 107 community members, Family House is Ohio’s second largest homeless shelter. Not being able to serve meals to residents presented a heartbreaking challenge to the shelter’s leadership. Without a kitchen, families only had access to a bin for refrigerated food and a locker for dry goods.
Family House plays an integral role in ensuring the health of Toledo’s homeless community by providing many families with their only source of nutritious food. Located in an area of Toledo called a food desert, a spot where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain, most families at the shelter were forced to walk long distances to the nearest carryout for groceries, usually with young children in tow.
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