CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – It’s been four days since hundreds of thousands of people in Northeast Ohio were without power.

This forces many people to throw away valuable items, including food.

Patrick Keller took his daughter to Walter Stinson Community Park on Saturday morning to throw away all the food after storms caused a power outage on Tuesday.

“Losing groceries is never fun,” Keller said. “Especially when you go shopping on Sunday and lose everything on Tuesday.”

Keller told 19 News that his power was back on Thursday, but he had to use the University Heights community’s spoiled food disposal site to get rid of six bags of food that didn’t survive the power outage – a problem Natasha Adkisson, a volunteer at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank Resource Center, knows well.

“I didn’t like the idea of ​​throwing food away,” Adkinsson explained. “So we cooked as much as we could and my daughter and I shared it with the grandchildren.”

Adkinsson tells 19 News that she will spend her day at the market helping others replace lost food, and that she will do the same after her shift.

“You never know when you might be the person who needs food, help or support,” Adkinsson said.

The vice president of Community Access tells 19 News that there were more people at the market this weekend than usual.

“Today, we actually had 100 neighbors waiting for us before we even opened the doors,” Tiffany Scruggs said. “That’s an increase we expect as people’s power is restored.”

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank is ramping up its relief efforts as people recover from the storms.

You just received $100,000 from First Energy.

With the money, they packaged 2,000 non-perishable food boxes and 1,000 non-perishable meals.

Next week, starting Monday at 7am, they will continue to provide food to those who need extra help.

You can reach them in the call center at 216-738-2067

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