July 29, 2022 | Press Release (Senator Portman’s Office)
AKRON, OH –Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) visited the new Stark County Campus of the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank and met with the organization’s leadership to receive updates on the food bank’s operations – especially in light of hardships brought on by COVID-19. Senator Portman worked closely with Ohio’s food banks throughout the pandemic to ensure they were able to continue to provide food to Ohioans in need. He also received a tour of their new campus that covers the southern part of their service region.
“I had a great visit at the new Stark County campus of the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank today. They have worked tirelessly to provide food to those in need throughout Northeast Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Portman. “I was pleased to see firsthand how New Markets Tax Credits have helped the Akron Canton Food Bank expand its services with a second facility in Stark County so it now has a permanent campus to better serve the Greater Akron region. We must ensure that all of our food banks have all the resources necessary to carry out their mission and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the needs of the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank so I can help ensure that they can continue to meet the increased demand due to this pandemic.”
The new Stark County campus that Senator Portman toured today was built with support from the New Market Tax Credits. Portman supports making the NTMC permanent, leading efforts with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to introduce legislation New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act (S.456) – to accomplish that goal. This bill would permanently authorize a federal tax credit for businesses or economic development projects in areas with poverty rates of at least 20 percent, or median incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median. After seeing significant benefits for Ohio cities, Portman led efforts to preserve the credit during the 2017 tax reform debate and helped secure the five-year extension in the end-of-year spending package that passed Congress in December 2020.
Pictures from the visit can be found below:
More on the Akron Community Food Bank project:
2020
Akron, OH | 13th District
