With each Tyson Foods truck delivery, we have asked our local partners to tell the story of hunger in their state and showcase the good work of volunteers and donors. On Tuesday, June 22, we will deliver a truckload to benefit all the food banks serving the Hoosier State.  Our friends at the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana in Muncie are serving as the lead local partner. Here is their story:

A man at a food distribution site in Indiana said he was there because, “My wife has cancer and our medical bills are so high we don’t have much left for food.” A young mother living in a household of ten said she was there to get food for her children; she had not eaten herself for two days. “Thank you so much” she said, “we really need this.”

Hunger has many faces in Indiana. Indiana regional food banks and the local charities with which they partner serve 700,000 low-income Hoosiers annually and nearly half are children and seniors. The clients served by Indiana’s food bank network are employed, unemployed, disabled, and elderly; they are rural, suburban and urban families. Many are single parents. Most are living far below the poverty line, and a growing number are falling from the middle class into poverty. Hunger is everywhere, but it is a problem that can be solved.

Indiana’s regional food banks along with the charities they support provide hands-on opportunities for thousands of Hoosiers to make a difference for neighbors in need. Volunteers pack boxes, fill shelves, labor at pantries, raise money, provide information, push brooms, enter data, consol clients, and advocate for hunger relief measures throughout Indiana. Donors support events, write checks, give food and provide a tremendous energy stream in the work of alleviating and ending hunger. The food industry from the farm to the distributor stands behind this statewide mobilization of resources as this critical network pulls together to feed neighbors in need.

It is not an easy job but as Indiana continues to feel the stress of a battered economy our residents are digging deeper and giving more to see that neighbors are fed. Hunger in America found that eleven percent of Hoosier households are food insecure – they just don’t have enough nutritionally adequate and safe foods or they do not have the ability or certainty to acquire foods in socially acceptable ways. Four percent of Hoosier households have very low food security, they are reducing food intake and disrupting eating patterns due to insufficient resources for food—they are hungry.

Statewide, more than 36 percent of client households are experiencing “very low food security” – referred to as hunger in federal statistical reports. This means that one or more household members don’t have enough food to eat.

An estimated 117,900 Hoosiers receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or other agency served by the member food banks of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, Inc. the state food bank association and Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network.

Among key findings of the Hunger in America 2010 Indiana State Report on emergency food distribution are the following:
• 16% of client households with seniors 65 or older have very low food security.
• 25% of adults in client households are working either full-time or part-time, and 33% of clients reported a job as the household’s main source of income.
• 2% of all households surveyed received government welfare assistance such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in the month prior to the survey.
• 4% were homeless at the time of the survey.
• 24% of clients reported that they or someone in their household do not have access to health insurance.
• 57% of clients had unpaid medical or hospital bills.
• 37% of client households report receiving SNAP benefits.
• 64% of clients were non-Hispanic white clients; 30% were non-Hispanic black clients; 8% were Latino or Hispanic.

What is most distressing is that clients regularly must choose between food and other necessities, or may not eat at all from time to time. While we celebrate the tremendous work done by Indiana residents to end hunger, we recognize that there is much yet to do. Indiana’s food bank network provides critical services while mobilizing resources from throughout the state and the nation to end hunger is this land of plenty.

Food banks statewide include:
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Gary
Food Bank of Northern Indiana, South Bend
Food Finders Food Bank, Inc., Lafayette
Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana, Ft. Wayne
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Inc., Muncie
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Indianapolis
Terre Haute Catholic Charities, Terre Haute
Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Bloomington
Tri-State Food Bank, Inc., Evansville