Serve by Serving Food: A Look into the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana

Serve by Serving Food: A Look into the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana

For over 30 years, the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana has been serving the region by serving food to its families. The mission of the Food Bank is to not only give food to individuals and families to alleviate hunger, but also to provide the tools to promote self-sufficiency and hunger relief.

“Our vision is to be a leader in the community, mobilized to fight hunger and to address all the different causes of it,” Arleen Peterson, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana said. “We want to feed the people who line up for food in our community, but we also want to shorten that line.”

About 1 in 5 Americans face hunger every day and 1 out of 4 children live in homes that are considered food insecure. Food insecurity in a home means that families and individuals in that home have to make hard choices regarding basic necessities because they are in difficult situations. Individuals might sell their valuables in order to buy food, they might have to choose between buying clothes or buying groceries, they will eat food that has passed its expiration date, they rely on family and friends as food sources, they will buy cheaper and unhealthy food to save money, etc.

“They make some very deep choices around their food and food intake and they are very insecure in terms of knowing if they can feed themselves or their families,” Peterson said.

Something to remember is that hunger knows no color, class, and holds no prejudices. Those who are homeless or financially insecure can be food insecure, but the elderly can be as well. They may not be able to drive and often walk to the grocery store to pick up food. The winter weather disagrees with many of us and can keep the elderly indoors and away from a food source. A singer mother who is going through a divorce may not be financially insecure, but she may have a hard time getting to the grocery store as she has no one to watch her kids or she might work odd shifts which keep her from making proper meals for her children.

fbnwiIn 1982, the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana opened its doors to the region in a donated space from a local Lay-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries™. In 1988 during an economic downturn, the Food Bank nearly closed but the community rallied together with the leadership of Strack and Van Til LLC to keep the organization from going under. Since then the organization has grown and now served both Lake and Porter Counties. Each year they distribute over 4.3 million meals, and serves 5,000 individuals each week from their 12,000 square-foot facility in Gary, IN. The facility was generously donated to them by a farmer, and they have outgrown that facility.

“There are about 100,000 people who are considered food insecure in Lake and Porter Counties, and this fluctuates based on poverty rates and population changes,” Peterson said. “Our job is to make sure that the choices they make aren’t as hard and to provide them with adequate access to food in our community.”

There is a difference between a food bank and a food pantry. A food bank acts as a storehouse that distributes food to pantries in the area, which then get distributed to individuals in need. The pantries might be churches, nonprofits, soup kitchens, programs, or other organizations that connect more closely with individuals on a weekly basis. “Our capacity to acquire food is so much greater than anyone realizes,” Steve Beekman, Development and Deputy Director of the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana said. “We have relationships with grocery stores in which we are able to rescue food that they can no longer sell as well as from schools… We want to engage the communities to develop and strengthen the region through food.”

The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana offers hunger relief programs to young children all the way to through to the elderly in the region.

BackPack – The BackPack Program was created to help children get a good meal when other resources are unavailable to them on the weekends or when school is out because of holiday breaks. Backpacks are filled with food and given to children and discreetly given to children and they take them home during the weekend. Food items are nonperishable and kid-friendly.

Summer Food Assistance Program – This USDA-sponsored program is part of a national initiative that serves almost 35,000 meals to children each summer. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is able to provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner to children 18 years old and under during the weekdays in the summer months while school is out.

Pantry on the Go – With the sponsorship of owners/operators of McDonald’s Northwest Indiana, Pantry on the Go is Able to feed families who would not normally have access to a food pantry. The program travels to different communities each week, providing more than 350,000 meals to families in Lake and Porter Counties.

CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Programs) – What used to be known as Senior Pac, this program provides hunger relief for low-income senior citizens in Lake and Porter Counties. An entire months’ worth of food that includes vegetables, cheeses, fruits, rice, peanut butter, meats, and other items that vary month to month.

Food Rescue – There are two parts to this program. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana rescues unused food that is perfectly good, yet about to be thrown away. Unopened items from grocery stores, food that is prepared but not served at events, buffets, or restaurants, and prepackaged food that students don’t eat during lunch at school is all rescued before it is tossed away. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana partnered with the Hammond Community Schools to rescue food. Students put unopened, prepackaged food that they didn’t finish into designated bins in their cafeterias. The schools store the items in refrigerators until the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana can come and pick it up.

Member Agencies – The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana has 107 agencies to which it distributes food. Click here to find a food pantry near you!