By STU CLAMPITT
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana does more work in Hamilton County than many people realize, in large part because there is a greater need here than is often perceived. In addition, the work they do to help directly with food for those in need, they also offer a great deal or information, resources and assistance for people who struggle with food insecurity.
The Reporter spoke with Gleaners CEO John Elliott about the work they do and a new series of videos that offers even more information online.
Elliott
“I think people would be surprised at the level of food insecurity in Hamilton County,” Elliott said. “That applies to SNAP eligibility, WIC eligibility and other programs as well. Just the size of the population in Hamilton County even with small percentages still adds up to a lot of people.”
According to Gleaners.org, Hamilton County has 27,190 food insecure people, 7,440 of whom are children. Hamilton County has a 5 percent poverty rate and 21 percent of the population is working but not earning enough.
Gleaners Food Bank recently launched a new video series called “Feeding the Future: A Bite-Sized Series,” featuring short videos educating Hoosiers on the services Gleaners offers throughout their 21-county service area and beyond.
One of the recent videos focuses on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. You can see all the Gleaners videos online at this link.
“Gleaners and most of the 200 Feeding America food banks are involved in helping neighbors determine eligibility for SNAP and, depending on the state statures, help them sign up. It is a supplemental program; that’s the ‘S’ in SNAP,” Elliott told The Reporter. “How neighbors who are food insecure solve that issue is typically not with one source. Well over two-thirds of those we serve are working, they just don’t earn enough to feed the whole family for the whole month. That sets off the search for supplements to get food to fill whatever their household’s gap is.”
For families who are in poverty or facing some mix of barriers, it is often hard work to find access to and then to fully utilize the opportunities.
“You’ll typically have some earned income, with SNAP and/or WIC, but for many households that’s still not enough, depending on the number in the family and their circumstances,” Elliott said. “The non-profit sector then fills that remaining gap.”
Food insecurity has always been a difficult problem to help solve, and the pandemic has made is exponentially more challenging.
“I don’t know on the SNAP side what the percentage it, but I do know with the benefit of some Feeding America research that about 40 percent of those who were in the food line in the earliest stages of the pandemic were people who had never needed food help before,” Elliott said. “That is a pretty significant percentage. Indiana still has a fairly large number of hourly-wage jobs. It is not automatic that hourly versus salary means you are more economically vulnerable, but it does often translate to less savings and being more likely that you are living paycheck to paycheck.”
In the last two years, people from all walks of life have been experiencing – often for the first time in their lives – the need for non-profit organizations like Gleaners and others.
“When we opened our food pantry in the Ivy Tech campus in Noblesville, I was there for the first day of food distribution and two engineers – who described themselves as having successful careers but who had not been able to find a new job after their employer closed – came through the food line together,” Elliott told The Reporter. “They just didn’t have the savings – the economic cushion. I do believe there is a direct connection to the U.S. savings rate for households and vulnerability to food insecurity.”
According to Elliott, data is not as solid now, during the pandemic, as it was pre-pandemic, but he told The Reporter before the pandemic Hamilton County had consistently been at about 5 percent food insecurity and at a little over 5 percent poverty rate for years.
Since its inception, Gleaners has distributed over 460 million pounds of food and critical grocery products through more than 500 hunger relief agencies and partners serving needy Hoosiers. One of the many locations they choose to do so in in school-based pantries.
“It’s not just about physical location or need to a particular neighborhood, while that does factor into it,” Elliott explained. “We also look for partners who are known and trusted by the population that we want to serve. Convenient access matters because transportation can be unreliable or access can be difficult for families who are struggling. If you can’t afford food, that often means you can’t afford stable housing or healthcare or transportation. If you have a vehicle, maintenance on the vehicle and filling the gas tank is tough.”
That is why Gleaners looks for locations in neighborhoods where people can access their pantries and other services easily.
“The second reason is even more direct,” Elliott said. “There is such a strong connection between the performance of students academically and their diet. Not just how much food they eat, but the mix of foods. That’s one of the reasons we hired two dieticians at Gleaners and we invest so much effort into meal planning and recipes and the nutritional freshness and variety of food we distribute. It’s about the quality and variety of food, not just the pounds.”
In addition to food distribution to agencies, Gleaners serves Indiana’s most vulnerable populations, seniors and children, through specialty programs.
Click here for Hamilton County-specific information from Gleaners.
If you would like to help, you can find out how at gleaners.org/get-involved.