Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank is extending its reach to address the nuanced nutritional needs of its clients by going beyond assistance with enrollment to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and helping them apply for additional services like Medicaid.

Sanctioned by the Social Security Administration, the food bank serves as a representative payee regulating monthly pensions for its elderly or disabled clients who are otherwise unable to oversee their personal finances independently. By helping them build a budget, Freestore ensures these beneficiaries are able to distribute their funds to cover housing and other vital expenses throughout the month.

The role of Freestore as a representative payee underpins a shift in the way food banks are extending their services beyond regular food distribution and adopting approaches to counteract the underlying causes of hunger. As a representative payee, Freestore automatically tallies rent, utility bills and other costs from each beneficiary’s monthly financial aid and assigns the remaining funds as a weekly stipend.

Last year, the food bank managed monthly budgets for 706 clients. Ryan Luckie, the Director of Public Benefit Services, affirmed, “This is indeed a stabilizing program. As all fixed costs, like the rent and utilities, are taken care of, the beneficiaries can enjoy a stable living.”

Freestore’s operational mode utilizes a centralized bank account to receive and distribute funds to its beneficiaries. All transactions, from managing incoming funds to dispensing weekly allowances, are supervised by their finance team. The food bank is also obliged to faithfully record the proceeds and expenditures for all beneficiaries. “Our transactions undergo regular auditing by Social Security and our internal auditors,” stated Luckie. Clients receive their weekly allowances by collecting paper checks from Freestore’s Customer Connection Center or can arrange for allowances to be deposited to their bank accounts. Freestore’s Customer Connection Center also operates a free client choice market twice a month.

The Representative Payee Program is but one facet of the considerable public benefits package managed by Ryan Luckie at Freestore. A dedicated team engages in client registration for SNAP and Medicaid, while other food bank volunteers help clients in procuring fundamental documents like birth certificates and IDs, which can be vital during major distress periods such as homelessness.

Increasing awareness around social determinants such as housing and food insecurity influencing health outcome necessitates support from the medical community for programs like Freestore’s Representative Payee. Luckie expresses his feelings around this tension, “We are entrusted with their lives,” he speaks of his clients. “We may not control the physical facet, but we oversee what contributes towards their living, which undeniably is a remarkable responsibility.”