The different roles United Way plays in responding to community need
United Way of Greater Cleveland provides the right help at the right time on multiple levels: we run 211, the region’s front door for help; turn what callers tell us into real-time data on community need; invest in solutions and partners to make impact; and carry that data to the policymakers and partners who can act on it alongside us.
Our role in Cuyahoga County’s emergency food system shows exactly how that works, from a single call to a public decision to the system that carries it out.
Tracking need, and telling officials what we see
Mike is a father raising two sons, and like a lot of working parents, there were months when stretching the grocery budget wasn’t enough. When he called 211 for help with food, a navigator connected him with pantries nearby. He started going regularly, and now keeps his home stocked with healthy food for his boys.
Mike’s call is one of thousands like it. Food pantries were the highest-volume single service in our 2025 data, generating over 10,700 requests for help. That volume makes pantry call patterns a reliable indicator of stress in the community, spiking during unusual events.
That signal is what United Way’s leadership carries into public rooms. Members of our leadership team regularly meet with city and county officials to share what thousands of callers tell us about conditions across the community, turning individual calls for help into something specific enough to shape where resources go.
From a spike in calls to a public decision
This kind of data is especially valuable during unusual events, when real-time numbers can reveal what’s happening in the community faster than official statistics could.
In August 2024, severe storms knocked out power across Northeast Ohio for up to a week. We heard from older adults who had lost a freezer full of food and from families needing help putting together that night’s dinner without a working kitchen. Calls to 211 for food assistance spiked nearly 300 percent. We shared that number with the county, which cited it when approving a $250,000 emergency addition to its food assistance contract.
A similar pattern played out in late 2025, when a federal shutdown paused Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and food-related calls to 211 jumped sharply. We reported that increase directly to county leaders at the time.
what happens after this data is shared
Sharing data with public officials is only part of the picture. United Way also serves as the fiscal agent for the county’s ongoing emergency food contract, distributing, monitoring, and reporting on the funds that flow to emergency food providers across Cuyahoga County.
In December 2025, the county committed to $1 million for emergency food per year for the next two years. Under that contract, United Way oversees funds reaching more than 50 affiliated hunger centers and 19 hot-meal sites, working alongside the Hunger Network and the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
This contract is one piece of a larger portfolio. We put resources back into Greater Cleveland each year through investments and partnerships like this one, working alongside 32 Impact Partners across housing, workforce, and childcare. We hold administrative roles with other initiatives including the Siemer Family Stability Initiative and the City of Cleveland Tenants’ Resources initiative, making sure public and philanthropic dollars turn into real, tangible help — groceries, emergency rent assistance to keep a family housed, mediation with a landlord — for families across Greater Cleveland.
what's at stake for this program
The emergency food contract depends on funding that isn’t guaranteed. This November, Cuyahoga County voters decide Issue 11, a renewal and increase of the county’s Health and Human Services levy. Beyond the food program described here, that levy funds care for children in county custody, meals for older adults, emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness, mental health and addiction services through the ADAMHS Board, and health care through MetroHealth.
United Way supports Issue 11because the levy funds critical safety net services. We see the importance of emergency food firsthand: calls for food assistance are consistently high in the county, and the demand for emergency food spikes sharply during disruptive events.
This article was drafted with the assistance of generative AI and edited and fact-checked by the author.
