Food Bank of Northwest Indiana’s Hope for the Holidays Feeds Almost 700 People

Hope-for-Holidays-2013-2Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, NIPSCO, and Jelly Pancake House partnered together this month to provide Hope for the Holidays to those in need in our communities. Through a special breakfast held on Dec. 6th at the Merrillville Jelly’s restaurant the program raised over $21,000, $20,000 from a special donation from NIPSCO. The money was used to purchase food to be distributed at giveaways on Dec. 14th and Dec. 21st in Valparaiso and Merrillvile respectively. NIPSCO also sent volunteers to assist at both distributions.

Between the two giveaways the Food Bank was able to distribute food to over 670 people. Since these individuals will share this food with their families, the Hope for the Holidays program was actually able to feed over 2,170 people.

We’re very happy we were able to feed so many families in need this holiday season,” said Arleen Peterson, Food Bank Executive Director. “There are so many people going without in our communities, and it’s so wonderful to see companies like NIPSCO and Jelly’s stepping up to make sure those folks can also have a happy holiday.”

Any food that was left over from the two distributions was used at the Pantry on the Go distribution on Dec. 23rd.

The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is located in Gary and supplies food to almost 100 pantries and soup kitchens in Lake and Porter Counties. In addition to distributing food to their member agencies the Food Bank also runs the BackPack, Kid’s Café, Food Rescue and Pantry on the Go programs and offers pantry referrals. Last year the Food Bank distributed over 5.1 million pounds of food, and served over 5,000 individuals a week.