Alejandro Figueroa reports for WYSO, the NPR affiliate station in Dayton, Ohio. He covers food insecurity in southwest Ohio, particularly the efforts by local organizations and government agencies to address a problem that has increased dramatically since the pandemic started. Figueroa was born in a small coastal town in Puerto Rico and in 2014 he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio. He is a 2021 graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, and while there he reported for The New Political, a student-run publication focused on politics and government. Figueroa covered news at the campus and city level, with a special interest in city government and the coal industry in southeast Ohio. As an intern for Ohio Magazine, he reported on great travel destinations in the state.
Beat: Food insecurity and the business of food
This reporter covers food insecurity and the business of food in southwest Ohio. Efforts by local organizations and government agencies to address this problem were only moderately successful before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the outbreak, the area's hunger problem has increased dramatically.