Dozens show up for TOPSS food drive during critical need

Nearly half of Ohio SNAP users have lost benefits, food donations down in Oxford

Nearly five minutes into a two-hour food drive for the Talawanda Oxford Pantry and Social Services (TOPSS) organization on Sept. 16 following an announcement on Facebook expressing an “urgent need,” locals were already flocking to donate canned goods, cereal boxes and personal care products.

After just 30 minutes, at least five oblong card tables were completely covered in goods.

“I was – when I first walked through the door – really astounded to see all of these tables full,” Steve Large, chair of the TOPSS Board, said of the event organized by Oxford Responds. “This is a remarkably generous, kind community.”

Oxford Responds is a community organization started about a year ago by a few locals frustrated with seeing people suffer, Chair Jennifer Walter said. Jennifer Walter said the group saw how overwhelmed Oxford’s social service programs already were and decided to step in to help out where they could. 

TOPSS Executive Director Sherry Martin said in an email to the Oxford Free Press, the donations weighed out to 1,972 pounds of food. While Martin said large donations are typical from multiple coordinated groups during the holidays, a donation of this size from a single entity, Oxford Responds, is notable.

Large said TOPSS has a program called “Neighborhood Food Drive” wherein anyone can enlist their neighbors to encourage people to donate food within a given time and collectively donate to TOPSS. Oxford Responds, seeing the need at the organization, decided to organize its own at the Oxford Presbyterian Church seminary building.

“(TOPSS) donations have gone down, so we decided to act – because that’s what Oxford Responds does – to help them stock the shelves,” Jennifer Walter said, adding she believes this is part of a larger problem created by nationwide funding cuts and policy changes. 

For example, a Sept. 8 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) showed among the 25 states with available data, more than 2.7 million people have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits since July 2025 as a result of a Republican reconciliation law, H.R.1, that increased work requirements and other restrictions for eligibility.

CBPP’s data shows 107,573 people in Ohio, or nearly half of former SNAP participants statewide, lost benefits as of May. CBPP reported a reduced need for SNAP benefits was unlikely despite the decline in participants, citing a steady unemployment rate nationwide, a decline in real wages year-over-year in July, increased grocery costs and a high food insecurity rate.

“This (drive) reached more people than I thought it would because people told a friend who talked to a neighbor,” Jennifer Walter said. “We had students just take food out of their pantry and walk it down. … Our community came together.”

From 4-6 p.m., the site operated like a ballot collection center on Election Day, with cars pulling up to the curb and drivers handing bags out their windows or opening their trunks in a line before pulling away. By the end, Oxford Responds loaded up several trunks with goods to take to the new TOPSS facility on College Corner Pike.

“There’s this misconception that (TOPSS doesn’t) need any more donations because they have this brand new building,” Jennifer Walter said. 

But Chase Walter, a social worker assistant at TOPSS who also assists unhoused clients and those needing rent and utility assistance, said the organization has seen more walk-ins since opening the new building, as more people feel comfortable coming in person. 

“People that use the food pantry specifically use the food pantry to save money because they need the money for their rent and utility assistance,” Chase Walter said. “With utility bills going up, it’s (getting) harder to use that money for food. And so that’s why the (pantry) also helps them.”

Data provided by Martin in the email shows there’s been an increase in unique households, people, visits and newcomers served by TOPSS this month compared to the same time last year. She said there’s also been an increase of more than 10% in children served, an increase of more than 14% in adults and nearly 23% in seniors. 

Martin’s August data shows more than 30,000 meals have been provided, also an increase of more than 15% compared to the same time last year . However, she said the organization’s food bank is running low, and donations are typically down in the summer. While the organization has had a few neighborhood drives, they weren’t as popular as those hosted last summer.

In 2025, the TOPSS pantry served over 1,600 households, or around 3,500 people, including about 1,100 children, according to data provided by Large. TOPSS Fresh Milk Club spends $24,000 on gallons of milk to give to families in need in any given year, Large said.

The social services side of the organization processed nearly 250 applications for rent and utility assistance and awarded around $45,000 in assistance in 2025, Large said.

“That’s just one year in our small, little town, and we’re already on trend to show more food distributed, more rent, utility, more need basically,” Large said. “We couldn’t do it without folks … literally giving from your pantries, giving from your wallets, from your hearts, (and from your) time.”

Large said one easy way to assist TOPSS is to drop off food donations at the facility at 5445 College Corner Pike or make financial donations by visiting topss.org/donate, visiting in person or reaching out via phone at 513-523-5859 or email at info@topss.org.

This football season, Miami University has also allowed a percentage of the profits at the concession stand to go toward funding TOPSS. Anyone can also organize a neighborhood food drive like Oxford Responds or donate something off the TOPSS Amazon wishlist.