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Pilot Program Explores New Ways Greater Cleveland Foodbank Can Help Families

Greater Cleveland Food Bank offers additional resources to 40 different families in need.
Greater Cleveland Food Bank
Greater Cleveland Food Bank offers additional resources to 40 different families in need.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank has been chosen for a pilot program that seeks to help those in need in a new way.

 The Food Bank is one of three in the country selected for the program offered through Feeding America. Low-income families with children will spend six months with a financial partner to develop financial security.

40 families in Euclid and the Slavic Village area of Cleveland have been selected to participate.

The Food bank’s Tiffany Scruggs says this program teaches families how to access resources to improve their family finances.

"We’re looking at elements related to their credit scores and working with financial partners to have to better manage that, so they can get better interest rates and so on to really cater to the long-term sustainability for themselves and their families," Scruggs said. 

 

The program provides individual financial coaching through Neighborhood Trust. Scruggs says they have funding in place to run the program for one year. They hope to secure additional support to keep it going for up to three years.

The program is also being piloted in Houston, Texas and Theodore, Alabama near Mobile.

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Cleveland resident Shinia Williams began her career in journalism at Kent State University in 2017. Shinia is passionate about shedding light on stories of hardship and powerful leaders from her hometown. For the past two years she has been producing full multimedia packages, which cover community-oriented project and individuals that strive to make a difference.
Carter is a senior journalism student at Kent State University and multimedia intern with WKSU. His concentration is in documentary photography, focusing on political unrest and working-class issues. He has worked on stories both local and abroad, having covered the 2016 Republican National Convention and the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys.