Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) and the Greater Cleveland Food Bank will continue their mobile food pantry partnership, which served nearly 5,000 households in 2025 through programs designed to meet growing community needs.
Volunteers load bags of groceries at a food distribution.Through mobile produce distributions, senior food boxes, and year-round meal programs for students, the partnership reflects the library’s expanding role in addressing food insecurity across Cuyahoga County.

"CCPL is proud to be a partner of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and leverage our resources to address critical community needs," said CCPL CEO Jamar O. Rahming in a statement. "In 2025, together we served nearly 5,000 unique households through the mobile pantry program."

Mobile produce
From April through September, CCPL will host drive-up Mobile Food Pantries featuring free fresh produce at four rotating branches.

The sites—Parma-Snow, Warrensville Heights, Brook Park, and Garfield Heights—operate on a first-come, first-served basis and are held from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on a rotating schedule. No pre-registration is required.

"We've been doing mobile pantries for almost 10 years, and we've been doing Kids Café with free after-school meals and summer lunches for students ages 18 and under even longer," says Becky Ranallo, the library system’s literacy and learning director. "With the mobile pantry piece, we started out dabbling to see what we could do and where we could partner with the Food Bank."

Ranallo says the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 emphasized that food insecurity is a major concern in Cuyahoga County, and library staff saw an opportunity to meet that need.

“People were coming to us [during the pandemic]—they were coming in our doors, and we could provide extra assistance—so that was where the assistance really kicked off,” Ranallo recalls of the mobile pantries’ start.

Staff commitment in action
CCPL staff are directly involved in supporting the library’s food distribution efforts. For communications and external relations manager Courtney Conway, which means stepping away from her administrative role once a month to volunteer at mobile pantry distributions—sorting food and helping distribute groceries to families in need.

That dual role has given Conway a front-row seat to the scale of the need. At the Parma-Snow branch, she says cars begin lining up at noon for the 3 p.m. distribution, with vehicles stretching down Snow Road.

A volunteer hauls a large bag of potatoes to a waiting car."Until you've seen a mobile pantry in progress, I don't know that people really understand what goes into it from the planning end,” Conway says. “But you also see the impact it is making on the customer end.”

The mobile pantries rely on about 20 volunteers per event, made up of both library staff and community members. The volunteers sort pallets of food into individual bags with predetermined quantities, then load the prepared bags into the waiting vehicles.

During winter months at Parma-Snow, the operation moves indoors to the library’s Sari Feldman Auditorium, where the volunteers transport packed food from inside the building to cars in the parking lot.

Regular volunteers and customers have developed ongoing relationships with volunteers recognizing returning visitors, Conway says. The friendships that have been formed help remove stigma from seeking food assistance.

Especially for seniors
CCPL this year is introducing the Food Bank’s specially curated monthly Senior Boxes to its distribution services. The boxes contain cheese and shelf-stable food items like juice, powdered milk, canned meats, and canned vegetables.

The senior program serves income-eligible residents aged 60 and older who commit to collecting their boxes from the same CCPL branch each month after completing an application, which is available at the pickup site.

Senior boxes will be distributed at Bedford Branch (second Thursdays, 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.), Brooklyn Branch (second Tuesdays, 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.), Maple Heights Branch (third Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.), and South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch (second Mondays, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.).

Dates and locations for both the Mobile Food Pantry and the Senior Food Boxes programs are posted on the CCPL website.

Supporting students year-round
The library-Food Bank partnership has expanded to include year-round programs for students.

Cars line up at a Cuyahoga County Pubilic Library branch during a monthly food distribution.CCPL and the Food Bank operate the Kids Café from August through May, providing free meals after school during the school year at 12 branches throughout Cuyahoga County. The 12 branches also house Student Success Centers that offer after-school homework assistance.

"We know that the kids, they’re going to struggle to learn if they’re hungry, and for us, the numbers show there's an increased possibility that our kids might not be getting a meal outside of school,” explains Ranallo.

"If we can provide that meal—especially if they're coming to us for our student success services [for] after-school tutoring or educational services, then it's a perfect time for us to give them something to eat as well."

Beginning in June and running through August—when many students don’t have access to school breakfast and lunch programs—CCPL and the Greater Cleveland Food Bank will offer free summer lunches at 11 branches across the county.

Meals are available on weekdays while supplies last. The programs are tied to school districts that qualify for reduced- or low-cost lunch programs, ensuring services reach communities with demonstrated need.

Ranallo says CCPL coordinates its food distribution schedule with other community partners to maximize impact rather than create competition.

"We work really closely with our partners, so we know when [to time] our mobile pantries or our senior boxes,” explains Ranallo, noting that customers often visit multiple food distribution sites to meet their needs. “We try to make sure that we are staggering it with the community as well—logistically spreading [food distributions] out throughout the month."

The partnership has seen consistent growth in the number of households served. "It was over 5,000 unique households in 2025, which is a little bit overwhelming,” Ranallo observes. “It's gone up—we've seen a difference.”

She says the increase reflects broader economic challenges, including changes to SNAP benefits.

“The changes in SNAP and SNAP benefits, [now] have a requirement to re-certify [eligibility],” Ranallo explains. “I'm sure that people are already losing benefits on that.”

Volunteers welcome
CCPL welcomes community volunteers to support these food distribution efforts.

Volunteers sort and pack groceries."Volunteers are always appreciated,” says Ranallo. “You know, our staff are wonderful—they're committed to this work, and they love to be able to assist people. But we also appreciate volunteers."

Interested volunteers can connect through CCPL's volunteer portal.

The mobile food pantry events are supported in part through funding from GE HealthCare, enabling CCPL to continue this critical community service.

"We're really grateful for this partnership with GE HealthCare, with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, and the ability to make a difference here," Ranallo says. "Without the Food Bank, we wouldn't be able to do this work, and neither would our other partners within the communities."

Conway, who has worked at the library for more than 17 years, says volunteering has given her a new perspective on CCPL’s impact on the community.

"There's no shame in coming to the library or coming to a mobile pantry," she says. "This is a welcoming place for them to be."