Freestore Foodbank 'Lift' work training program helps those struggling earn a living wage
Cassie Reinecke, 41, was choosing groceries at the Freestore Foodbank Liberty Street Market when she saw a "take-one" notice: "LIFT the Tristate," it read.
It described a 10-week Freestore Foodbank program that gives people a chance to earn a living wage.
Reinecke took the literature home, thinking her 21-year-old son might be interested.
The Freestore Foodbank – one of Ohio's largest food banks, and one that is struggling with a drop in donations – also provides work training to people who are struggling financially.
About 40% of the nonprofit's annual budget goes for support and "wrap-around" services for clients, said Kurt Reiber, president and CEO. And despite a $3.5 million deficit this fiscal year, he said, the board of directors is committed to keeping its programs going to help families recover from financial instability.
“They’re just not making enough money to make ends meet," Reiber said.
Lift the Tristate is a logistics, inventory management, facilities management and transportation education program. Freestore Foodbank staff and Gateway Community and Technical College provide the program. Students get hands-on training, working with experienced staff at the Freestore Foodbank and, upon graduation, links to Freestore partners that need workers. Reinecke's son found a job without that help – so she enrolled.
Her family is among countless impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and its repercussions.
“We were living in Norwood and our (rental) house sold out from under us. We were told to leave within 30 days," she said.
A Cincinnati resident her entire life, she said, she, her husband and kids love the rental home they found in Hartwell, but it came with a higher rent, and that, plus the need to move quickly, set her and her husband back.
Reinecke said the job opportunities provided through the Lift program will help her family stabilize – and end her trips to the Freestore market for food.
The average pay of graduates is $20 to $25 per hour, said Katie Young, Lift program manager.
The current class of 21 students is set to graduate on March 14, and Reinecke's classmate, Christopher Glass, said he can't wait.
Glass, 40, said he learned about the workforce training program while staying at a Cincinnati shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
He moved to Cincinnati after the sawmill in Puryear, Tennessee, where he’d worked for five years, shut down. His wife, Gina Glass, moved with their young daughter Helen to Lorain, Ohio, in July 2023, to live with and care for a grandmother.
As Chris Glass sought work in Ohio, he landed in Cincinnati, where he figured a “bigger city” might mean a better chance at finding work.
The Lift program is helping him get re-certified in operating a forklift, a certification he had that lapsed as he looked for work.
Glass said the program will help him regain work and bring Gina and Helen, who turned 5 on Feb. 9, to Cincinnati, so they can again live together as a family.
“I miss my wife and my daughter,” he said, tears spilling over.
“This is what’s gonna get me back on track.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Freestore Foodbank workforce training leads to living wage for clients
