As the spring showers ebb, the growing season brings about a new set of challenges for food insecure families.
Although Indianapolis has food assistance from local pantries, church food drives and community organizations, a change in seasons brings with it a change in need for those who are food insecure.
“It’s not the greatest thing, it’s not that greatest feeling to have to come to the food pantry and we know that, so we try to make our clients — we’re just like family,” TJ Ranft, operations manager of Boulevard Place Food Pantry, said. “It’s not just like a stone wall warehouse… we try to make the experience as well as it can be.”
Boulevard Place Food Pantry, which is located at 4202 N. Boulevard Place, is part of the Saint Vincent de Paul Network and focuses on emergency food relief within five zip codes in Indianapolis. The pantry sources food donations, health items, volunteers and additional funding from five Indy-based Catholic parishes, said Matt Hayes, pantry director.
“What we really want to do with our clients is have a lot of variety,” Hayes said. “We want them to come into our place and feel like they’re in a small grocery store, and so the donations help that happen, from parishes and individuals and groups; we also have some relationships with some gardens.”
The Broad Ripple farmers market, Riviera and Rocky Ripple garden clubs and SHarP (Shared Harvest Project) provide fresh produce to Boulevard Place Food Pantry during the harvest season.
In addition to food donations from Gleaners Food Bank, they receive funding to order from a company in Minnesota for supplemental items such as canned goods, diapers, hygiene products, vitamins and other household essentials, Ranft said.
They send out a list of needed items to its parishes — including Christ the King, Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Luke, St. Joan of Arc and St. Thomas Aquinas — biweekly and usually include things clients need or ask for, such as nonperishables, soap, toilet paper and diapers, Hayes said. These are often more expensive items that SNAP does not cover and having them available makes people’s lives easier, Hayes said.
However, as spring signals the end of the school year, Hayes said Boulevard Place is seeking more staple items such as packaged potatoes, boxed pancake mix, canned stew and soups with meat or protein, medium bags of sugar, breakfast cereals, detergent and men’s and women’s personal items.
Light of the World Christian Church, which is located at 4646 N. Michigan Road operates a weekly donation-based food pantry with pick up service for food insecure families in the community, Janae Pitts-Murdock, senior pastor, told the Recorder.
The church, which is 157 years old, has served its community with a broad range of programs and ministries — available to members and nonmembers — including its food pantry, emergency assistance, utility assistance and seasonal clothing drives, Pitts-Murdock said.
“The issue of food insecurity in Marion County is so significant that the food banks cannot keep up with the demand,” Pitts-Murdock said. “Even though we are supported by local food banks, it is not enough to meet the need in our community.”
Church volunteers run the pantry, which is stocked with congregation donations, produce from their urban garden and supplemental items from Gleaners. The pantry is open every Monday from 9 a.m. to noon and 6-9 p.m. Families in need can pick up a food box from 6:30-9 p.m. on Mondays.
Light of the World’s food pantry is always in need of staples to add to food boxes, Pitts-Murdock said. This includes items such as rice, beans, peanut butter, potatoes and canned items. However, Pitts-Murdock said it is important for the church to include a variety of kid-friendly foods, fresh produce that are harder to come by like zucchini and squash, juice boxes, applesauce, bread and cake mix.
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