Hamilton County’s Hometown Newspaper, The Reporter, is helping Gleaners Food Bank help families in need, and you should too.
Gleaners, the largest food bank in the state, just launched its third annual No One Runs on Empty campaign during the months of May and June to raise awareness of food insecurity. This year, the campaign centers on the idea of “Winners Give Milk” – looking to have people donate money towards buying gallons of milk to reach Gleaners’ goal of 1 million milk gallons in 2022. The goal for May is to fund 16,500 gallons of milk, equal to 500 gallons per driver in the Indy 500.
This week The Reporter visited Gleaners partners at the Grace Church Care Center to help buy 100 gallons of milk for families in need.
According to Care Center Pastor Marcus Casteel, last year his location was able to give over $1.3 million in food to families in the area.
Shopping at Care Center is done on a point system where the first person in the family gets 15 points to use in the store. They get five more points for each additional person in the family. Thus, a family of four would have 30 points to use.
“The foundational concept of the point is one point serves one person one meal,” Casteel said. “So if a box of cereal is three and gallon of milk is two, you should get at least five servings out of that. But we do a lot of buy-one-get-ones if we have extra product. The macaroni and cheese is buy-one-get-one. So people will get more than the points they have when they come in depending on what they pick.”
Healthier choices cost fewer points as a way to encourage shoppers to move toward healthier eating. According to Casteel, that means some families can get enough for an entire week from one visit to Care Center.
“A personal shopper goes through with each visitor to help them out,” Casteel said. “The personal shopper will take their stuff through the checkout line and get it bagged. They drive around and we load the groceries in their car for them, we pray with them, and we see them the next week. We try to build a relationship with them.”
There is no lengthy verification process to get help from Care Center.
“They just have to show up,” Casteel said. “They don’t have to bring anything. They don’t have to prove anything. We take them at the value that they are in need and we just want to help them.”
Care Center, 5504 E. 146th St., Noblesville, is open from 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays and 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday mornings.
Care Center is one of many Gleaners partners in Hamilton County. A full list accompanies this article and all of them could use your help to serve families in need.
A donation of $30 gets 10 gallons closer to the million-gallon goal. You can donate at gleaners.org/milk. You can also send a check to Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, 3737 Waldemere Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46241. If you do send a check, please note on the memo line that the money is specifically for the milk drive. You can also give by texting “milk” to 55443.
