MASTER GRANT NARRATIVE

The mission of Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana is to lead the fight against hunger.

Gleaners’ vision is food for every table, hope for every future.

One in six Hoosiers in central and southeast Indiana struggle with hunger and food insecurity.
One million Hoosiers, on any given day, may not know where their next meal is coming from.
Many Hoosiers experience unexpected medical expenses, rising housing costs or loss of income,
resulting in insufficient resources to ensure that everyone in their family has access to enough
healthy food. This food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between
basic needs such as housing, utilities, or medical care and purchasing nutritious food. Hunger is
interconnected with education, employment, our economy, crime, health and other issues.
Through the Healthy Food for Families program, Gleaners seeks to lead the fight against hunger
by providing healthy food to hungry clients.

Nearly half of those served by Gleaners are children (37%) and seniors (12%). Additional
characters of those served by Gleaners include:

 64% of households report at least one employed person in the past year
 17% have at least one member that has served in the military
 70% are living at or under 100% of the poverty level
 53% are in deep poverty, reporting annual income of $10,000 and under
 29% of households include grandparents who have responsibility for grandchildren who
live with them, a potential barrier to employment
 81% report choosing between paying for food and paying for transportation
 77% report choosing between paying for food and paying for utilities
 65% report choosing between paying for food and paying for housing
 78% of clients report choosing between paying for food and paying for medicine/medical
care

MARION COUNTY
When poverty increases due to unemployment or underemployment, so does hunger. According
to Map the Meal Gap 2018, the latest update of a scientific, county-level analysis of food
insecurity conducted by Dr. Craig Gundersen, one of our nation’s leading experts on hunger,
Marion County’s current food insecurity rate of 18.3% is the highest among all 92 Indiana
counties. This means that an estimated 170,990 Marion County residents struggle with food
insecurity. Households with children are almost twice as likely to be food-insecure than those
without. An estimated 46,250 children in Marion County are food insecure—a rate of 19.9%. .
Agencies in Marion County continue to experience high demand for emergency food assistance.
For 28% of food-insecure county residents, charitable providers are their only defense against
hunger because they live in households with incomes above the federal nutrition program
threshold of 185% of poverty.

Gleaners was founded on April 14, 1980, by concerned citizens who had a vision: no one in
Indiana should suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Gleaners has been a certified affiliate of
Feeding America, the national food bank network, since August 1981. Initially, the food bank was
authorized by Feeding America to serve the entire state of Indiana. Early in 1981, Gleaners
received a grant to work with Indiana communities that wanted to develop food banks. This effort
resulted in the first statewide food bank network in the country.
Today, Gleaners serves 21 counties in central and southeast Indiana including nine counties in
metropolitan Indianapolis: Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Hancock, Morgan, Boone,
Shelby and Putnam; five counties in east central Indiana: Fayette, Franklin, Rush, Union and
Wayne; and seven counties in southeast Indiana: Bartholomew, Decatur, Jackson, Jefferson,
Jennings, Ripley and Scott.
Gleaners distributes food to 243 partner agencies- including emergency food pantries, soup
kitchens, and homeless shelters- and 243 schools. Of these agencies, 13 are designated as
‘Pantry Partners.’ The purpose of the Pantry Partner Initiative is to collaboratively develop high-
capacity pantries throughout Gleaners’ service area. The ideal Pantry Partner has the following
attributes:

 Capability to serve hungry people at least twice per month

 Greater refrigeration capacity so nutritious perishable and frozen food items can be
offered to clients
 Open at least 12 hours per week, with evening and weekend hours that allow low-
income working families to access the food without taking time off from their jobs

Currently, there are 13 Pantry Partners operating in four counties: Hamilton, Hancock, Johnson
and Marion. In 2017, these high-capacity food pantries received the equivalent of eight million
meals from Gleaners, which is 47% of the 17 million meals that the food bank distributed to all of
its 200+ member agencies in 21 counties.

In fiscal year 2018, Gleaners distributed 27.8 million pounds of food, the equivalent of 23.2 million
meals. This represents a 10% increase over fiscal year 2016. Additionally, the amount of fresh
produce Gleaners distributed increased by 56%, from 5.21 million pounds in 2016 to 8.15 million
pounds in 2018. On an annual basis, over a quarter-of-a-million Hoosiers depend on Gleaners for
food, one out of every eight residents within its service area.

Gleaners operates out of a state-of-the-art, 297,000-square-foot distribution center on the

southwest side of Indianapolis. With its facility, fleet of trucks and material handling equipment,
Gleaners is afforded tremendous capacity to efficiently and safely distribute large volumes of
food for the hungry. Our promise to respect their dignity and serve them with hospitality drives
our commitment to the fight against hunger.
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana is governed by a 26-member, volunteer board of directors. Board
officers include Chairperson, President, Secretary and Treasurer. Board members are expected to
have an interest in reducing hunger, to occupy a position of influence within the community, and
to have the ability to leverage community resources to advance the food bank’s mission.
In addition, to setting policy and providing governance, board members are expected:
 To attend board meetings as stated in the by-laws
 To accept a committee assignment
 To make annual financial contributions to the food bank
 To complete an orientation program
 To provide technical assistance to the board as requested by the Chairperson of the
Board and to the staff as requested by the President and CEO
Board officers are as follows:
 Chair: Greg Fennig; VP of Public Affairs, Indianapolis Power & Light
 Vice Chair: Georgiana Reynal; Chief Advocacy Officer, St. Vincent Health
 Treasurer: Chad Mayer; Director, Supply Chain, Cummins, Inc.
 Secretary: Paul Sinclair; Partner, Ice Miller
John Elliott serves as President and CEO, following a successful career in public affairs and
government relations at a for-profit grocery retailer. John leads a senior executive team that
oversees the daily operations of Gleaners’ programs and services and is responsible for
approximately 70 full-time employees.
Gleaners’ Chief Financial Officer, Joe Slater, was selected as an honoree for Indiana Business
Journal’s 2018 CFO of the Year. Joe spearheaded the effort to trim more than $1 million from
Gleaners’ annual budget without impacting client services by consolidating some staff functions,
moving to partial self-funding for employee health insurance, optimizing transportation routes,
and making more effective use of marketing expenses.

Gleaners is currently engaged in its most ambitious strategic planning process to date. The
strategic plan, supporting documents, and training/communications plan will prepare not just
staff, but the board as a whole and board committees, for a multi-year phase of strategic change
and dramatic growth. Gleaners is collaborating with its community partners—leaders from non-
profit agencies, government, the corporate community, and other stakeholders—who are helping
build the strategy that will transform the hunger relief system in Indianapolis.

Gleaners has engaged the local consulting firm Chorus, Inc. to help develop the plan. Chorus was
chosen for its depth of experience with both for-profit and non-profit organizations, and its
particular experience working with supply-chain and distribution enterprises. Initial interviews with
key stakeholders have already been completed, and Integration Work Teams have been formed
around the following themes:
  Integration/Collaboration
 Inbound Channels/Food Sourcing
 On-site Operations (incl. facility optimization and food handling)
 Outbound Channels/Food Distribution
 Talent/Communications/Financial Excellence
All Work Teams are working to develop Goals, Measures & Metrics, Specific Strategies, and Key
Actions needed to address critical needs.
We anticipate the outcome of this strategic planning process will be a comprehensive but nimble
plan that defines the role Gleaners plays in raising people out of poverty, better leverages our
assets, increases the effectiveness of our operations, and gives strategic direction to double the
amount of food provided to food insecure people in our 21-county service area.

Gleaners is determined to sustain its critical hunger relief programs. Gleaners’ senior leadership
works diligently to ensure that infrastructure and program expenses align with available revenues.
Each year, the Gleaners Board of Directors receives a detailed annual development plan. Specific
fundraising goals for each income category are assigned to individual staff members, ensuring
staff accountability for fundraising results. Gleaners raises funds primarily through direct mail,
individual major gift solicitations, special events, and proposals to foundations, corporations, civic
groups and congregations.
During a challenging and crowded 2017 fundraising environment, Gleaners’ donated revenue
reached a record high of $17.3 million, including a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
This transformational gift was used to support financial health and ambitious future fundraising
goals by establishing a permanently restricted $9.5 million endowment fund, and underwriting:

 New donor database software

 The latest upgrade of the food bank’s enterprise software
 A new refrigerated box truck
 Five additional staff members who have been added to the communications and
fundraising team in order to raise awareness of Gleaners in the community and increase
donated revenue from individuals, corporations and foundations.

Gleaners’ biggest financial challenge is to grow donated revenue from the $7.3 million budgeted
for fiscal year 2017 to the $9.2 million projected for 2020, revenue that will be needed to meet the
food bank’s strategic objectives. Thanks to Lilly Endowment’s transformational gift, Gleaners has
grown its development staff from four to nine fundraisers and now has the team in place to reach
its ambitious donated revenue goals. The largest opportunities for growth in donated revenue are
individual major gifts and corporate support.

The food bank has also made investments in significant upgrades to development software
(eTapestry) and added a software plug-in to drive digital results (Luminate). An investment
advisor has been engaged for the new, permanent endowment and investment policies have been
formulated. Other efforts that have been completed in 2017 include a planned giving brochure
and an updated gift acceptance policy.

Gleaners' focus is widening from simply distributing high volumes of food, to distributing the
healthiest mix of food possible and supporting innovative programs that lead to long-term
sustainable outcomes. We are thinking more strategically about how we can play a role in raising
people out of poverty while 'staying in our lane' of hunger relief. One way Gleaners is working to
achieve long-term sustainable outcomes is by investing in nutritional education outreach. The top
food product desired by pantry clients is produce, with 55% expressing a desire for more fresh
fruits and vegetables. Many clients, however, are not familiar with some produce items and do
not know how to prepare them.

In December 2017, Gleaners hired Sarah Huber as its Nutrition Manager, becoming the first and
only food bank in Indiana to hire a fulltime Registered Dietitian. Nutrition outreach allows us to
connect the fresh healthy food we are providing in our pantries with how to use it at home. We
focus on making it easy and practical for families to incorporate these foods into their diets, and
teach families how to plan meals on a budget. Changing the way people approach and use food
can have positive ripple effects across families and whole communities, helping to break the
interconnected links between poverty, food insecurity, and illness.

Recent nutrition outreach efforts that have impacted clients include:

 Coordinated recipe demos and nutrition/culinary education with various community
partners at Gleaners’ on-site food pantry.
 Developed and distributed nutrition education handouts and recipes highlighting healthy
meal-making options at our pantry, and also shared them with our agencies, schools, and
community partners.
 Worked to maximize the nutritional quality of our food program menus, including
distributions for seniors, CARE mobiles, BackSacks, and summer feeding programs.
 Performed a nutrient analysis of the BackSacks menu to ensure the food provided helps
support healthy growth and development in the children we serve. New menu items were
also assessed for ease of use and taste-tested by children.
 Executed a nutrition education program to teach children at select summer BackSacks
sites about healthy eating and trying new foods.
 Contributed monthly “Spotlight on Nutrition” posts to Gleaners’ Food for Thought blog.
 Participated in a number of collaborative groups focused on improving community health.
 Increased communication with health care organization partners to promote community
health through improved food security, nutrition, and access to affordable health care.
  Partnered with the Indy Hunger Network to provide cooking classes to clients at its on-site
food pantry.
Distributing an increasingly healthy mix of fresh, nutritious food has been made possible by the
opening of the Lower Midwest Regional Produce Cooperative in May 2017. This cooperative, co-
located at Gleaners' headquarters on the southwest side of Indianapolis, works with farmers
across the country to rescue produce that would have otherwise been wasted and distributes it to
14 food banks across the Midwest. The cost to cover picking, packing, transportation, and
warehousing fees associated with acquiring this produce is an average of 16.5 cents per pound.
At 16.5 cents per pound, in addition to supporting positive health outcomes for pantry clients,
fresh produce is also the most economical way we can close the meal gap.
Looking to the future, Gleaners' Nutrition Manager hopes to develop toolkits and workshops for
partners on sourcing food for dietary and cultural needs while promoting nutrition. Website
enhancements that will highlight nutrition initiatives and related resources are also being
developed.

In November 2017, Gleaners partnered with St. Vincent Health to open a health clinic within the
food bank’s onsite food pantry to serve clients who need medical care. This walk-in clinic is
designed to serve clients who visit Gleaners’ food pantry, and will offer children and adults an
accessible, economical healthcare option for minor injuries and illnesses that do not require a
visit to a hospital emergency room.

In order to increase the amount of high-quality perishable products Gleaners distributes, agency
partners are being asked to distribute to clients twice per month (many agencies currently only
distribute once per month). While this change will allow us to increase produce distributions, it will
also put pressure on Gleaners’ already aging fleet of trucks, which will need to increase its
number of routine deliveries. The current fleet logs nearly a quarter-of-million miles per year, and
some units are more than a decade old. Mechanical repairs are becoming more frequent and
expensive- in the last 18 months alone, repairs cost $63,598, the equivalent of 385,442 lost
pounds of produce for our hungry neighbors.

From 2019-2021, Gleaners hopes to modernize its fleet and build additional capacity by
purchasing five tandem-axle refrigerated box trucks at approximately $150,000 each for a total
investment over three years of $750,000. Gleaners is specifically investing in tandem-axle trucks
because fruits, vegetables, and frozen meat are heavier than shelf-stable products, and tandem-
axle trucks carry an additional 8,000 pounds of food. Outfitted with lift gates, these refer box
trucks can also deliver to agencies that do not have receiving docks or room to accommodate
semi-trailers. By gradually replacing old, smaller box trucks with tandem-axle trucks, Gleaners’
drivers will be able to make more pickups and deliveries without returning to the food bank,
driving down transportation costs.
The first of the five new trucks is expected to arrive by the end of December 2018. All trucks in our
fleet are placed on a routine preventative maintenance plan reflective of the truck’s age and
mileage. Joe Slater, CFO/COO will be responsible for acquiring the truck. Lynn Austin,
Transportation Manager, will be responsible to using and maintaining the truck. Savanah Strever,
Director of Grants and Foundation Relations, will be responsible for evaluating and reporting on
the project.

Using data from more than 30,000 college students, Drs. Katharine Broton and Sara Goldrick-Rab
found that 50% of college students are food insecure.1 Another study looking at 33,000 students
at 70 colleges across 24 states found that rates are even higher among community college
students, with 67% indicating some level of food insecurity and 33% indicating the very lowest
levels of food security.2 Broton and Goldrick-Rab conclude that “efforts to increase college
completion rates must be broadened to include attention to material hardship and shed light on
this all-too-often hidden cost of college attendance.”
These statistics hold true at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana (Ivy Tech), where the top two
barriers to graduation have been identified as hunger and childcare. Gleaners Food Bank of
Indiana (Gleaners), Ivy Tech, and Goodwill Industries (Goodwill) are partnering to address student
hunger by installing a food pantry on the Noblesville Ivy Tech campus. Having access to
nutritious food supports health and wellness, improving students’ ability to focus on coursework
and ultimately succeed in their professional goals. It also allows them to divert money that would
have been spent on food to other strained budget items, including childcare.
The vision for this pantry, called the Gleaners Hamilton County Cupboard (GHCC), is that it will be
more than a food distribution center. The pantry will be centrally located in the same building as a
Goodwill Excel Center and WorkOne, across the street from a Boys and Girls Club, and near three
federal low income housing apartment communities. The goal is to grow the number of
complimentary wrap-around services offered at or near the pantry during the grant period. This
wider Ivy Tech ‘support hub’ has the capacity to drastically increase students’ ability to complete
a degree and move out of the food line and into long-term self-sufficiency.
The pantry is outfitted with refrigerators, freezers, and four mobile shelving units, meaning it is
poised to distribute exceptionally high amounts of fresh produce to its clients. Initially, the pantry
was scheduled to be open twice per month during the first year of operation. Due to the high
volume of clients it is serving, in October 2018, the pantry increased operations to be open every
Friday from 11:00am-2:00pm. It is anticipated that the pantry will serve 3,900 duplicated
households each year with approximately 11,700 total family members. We project distributing a
total of 97,500 pounds of food (an estimated 81,250 meals) with a wholesale value of
approximately $163,800.
IMPACT OF VOLUNTEERS

Fighting hunger is a community effort. Gleaners depends on over 22,000 volunteers annually who
donate their time and talents to help us provide “food for every table, hope for every future.”

1
https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17741303
2
https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17741303
Gleaners engages the community by actively recruiting program volunteers through a variety of
means:

 Employee volunteer/community service fairs where a Gleaners representative promotes

the ways individuals or groups can volunteer
 Proactive communication when a Gleaners staff member reaches out to an individual,
company, church, school, civic group, or other organization to encourage them to
contribute their time and talents to Gleaners as a way of giving back to the community or
promoting teamwork
 Peer-to-peer recruitment when current volunteers share the satisfaction they derived from
helping at Gleaners
 Electronic information that is seen either through directly visiting Gleaners’ website or
arriving via a web link
 Broadcast media that bring listeners and viewers up-to-date on Gleaners’ immediate
needs for volunteers

The top food product desired by pantry clients is produce, with 55% expressing a desire for more
fresh fruits and vegetables. Many food-insecure families simply cannot afford to purchase fresh
produce, even if they have a full-service grocery store in their neighborhood. Of course, many
areas in Indianapolis are classified as food deserts and have no grocery stores at all. Because of
a lack of affordability and physical access, there is often an association of food-insecurity with
obesity and greater risk for the chronic diseases association with it. This is a paradox, given that
food-insecurity is defined as having limited or uncertain access to food, and obesity is commonly
associated with overconsumption. The explanation is found in the coping strategies of food-
insecure families that often contribute to weight gain, such as selecting cheap, high-calorie,
processed foods that are readily available in convenience stores and on the dollar menus at fast
food restaurants. Therefore, the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption among people
struggling with hunger declines significantly as food-insecurity status worsens [Source: Feeding
America, Dr. Angela Odoms-Young].
Gleaners recognizes that in order to close the meal gap in its 21-county service area and promote
better nutrition among the clients it serves, the food bank must aggressively expand access to
fresh fruits and vegetables for a food-insecure population of 316,470 Hoosiers.
On May 1, 2017, Gleaners became the distribution hub for one of eight regional produce
cooperatives being established by Feeding America, allowing for greater variety, quantity, and
quality of fresh fruits and vegetables. These food bank-led cooperatives are taking advantage of
the more than 6 billion pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables that never make it to market each
year in America, and are either plowed under or sent to a landfill. Farmers are willing to donate
these nutritious fruits and vegetables if food banks are willing to underwrite the growers’ costs of
picking, packing, and transporting the produce – approximately 16 cents per pound.
A working executive committee with representation from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan,
Missouri, and Ohio has been formed and is overseeing the activity of the Cooperative. The
executive committee has approved the membership guidelines, is working to facilitate an
increase in demand for produce among the members in their respective states, is building
produce grower connections within their respective states, and provides financial oversight of the
Cooperative’s activities. The Cooperative’s governance is fully formed and functioning at this
time.
The Membership Plan and Policy Guide includes a detailed description of the cooperative’s
policies and membership expectations/commitments. This has been signed by 14 food banks,
who have committed a minimum purchase of 9.2 million pounds from the Cooperative in 2018.
Current committed members include:

Freestore Food Bank, Cincinnati, OH Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Bloomington, IN

Gleaners Food Bank, Indianapolis, IN Facing Hunger Food Bank, Huntington, WV
Southeast Missouri Food Bank, Sikeston, MO Tri-State Food Bank, Evansville, IN
Second Harvest Food Bank, Muncie, IN The Foodbank, Dayton, OH
Catholic Charities FB, Terre Haute, IN Food Finders Food Bank, Lafayette, IN
Riverbend Food Bank, Davenport, IA Central Illinois Food Bank, Springfield, IL
St. Louis Area Food Bank, MO Dare to Care Food Bank, Louisville, KY
Gleaners’ goal was to distribute between 10-15 million pounds of produce through the
Cooperative during its first year of operation, and we successfully distributed more than 10.2
million pounds. The Cooperative has been incredibly successful at sourcing a wide variety of
produce, including potatoes, onions, carrots, watermelons, cucumbers, kale, collard greens, corn,
apples, cauliflower, cabbage, sweet potatoes, pears, squash, kiwi, oranges, celery, and cantaloupe.
We communicate regularly with members about what produce varieties they prefer, and adjust
our product sourcing to fit their preferences, when possible. Members have expressed
appreciation for the wide variety of produce available.
Key successes of the Cooperative’s first full year of operation include:
 Securing partnership with 14 member foodbanks;
 Distributing 10,225,299 pounds of fresh produce to member foodbanks;
 Staying close to the originally projected maintenance fee of $0.15/pound despite higher-
than-anticipated transportation costs; and
 Drastically reducing the percentage of unclaimed product from 20% to 2%..
We are working to build strategies that will enable the Cooperative to reach the 15-million-pound
goal by the end of year two. We are working to increase membership. We are encouraging our
members to work together and leverage the group’s purchasing power to negotiate other deals.
We also want to challenge food banks to consider what they can do to encourage their staff and
agencies to expand their current levels of produce distribution. We have now improved
infrastructure/warehouse capacity, improved transactional processes, and improved financial
processes in place to take the Cooperative to scale.
In response to this exciting opportunity, Gleaners launched the Produce Hope Initiative in 2017,
aimed at increasing the variety, quantity, and quality of fresh fruits and vegetables available to
food-insecure residents in central Indiana. The result is that Gleaners has increased fresh produce
distributions by 56%, from 5.21 million pounds in 2016 to 8.15 million pounds in 2018. The
Produce Hope Initiative is helping thousands of local families incorporate more servings of fresh
fruits and vegetables into their daily diets.
.
Since launching the Produce Hope Initiative however, we have found that many clients are not
familiar with some produce items and do not know how to prepare them. As produce becomes a
larger percentage of total distribution, in partnership with its agencies, Gleaners has the
opportunity to increase its efforts to educate clients about using and preparing fresh fruits and
vegetables. To that end, Gleaners is now focusing more on nutrition education initiatives.

Gleaners seeks to continue transforming hunger relief in Indianapolis by increasing the volume of
nutrient-dense fresh fruits and vegetables available to local families struggling with hunger. In
order to do this, Gleaners must raise the funds necessary to do the following:
 Capture the produce needed for hunger relief in central Indiana—produce that is now
flowing through the food bank’s distribution center in great volume
 Pay growers’ picking, packing costs and transportation costs, estimated at an average
of $0.15 per pound, plus an additional 1 cent to cover the costs of handling and
storage at Gleaners
 Help agency partners expand facility and operating capacity to receive and distribute
higher volumes of fresh fruits and vegetables
 Help expand access to nutritious, fresh produce for tens of thousands of hungry
people struggling with chronic diseases
 Close the meal gap in our community in the most cost-effective way possible.

To further improve the efficiency of produce distributions, Gleaners recently purchased four
bagging machines to improve operations and increase fresh produce distribution by breaking
down bulk packages into more manageable portion sizes (e.g.: 50 lb. bags of carrots can be
broken down into 3 lb. bags that seniors can more easily transport home).

MARION COUNTY
The primary beneficiaries of the Produce Hope Initiative in Marion County are the over 170,000
residents who lack access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household
members and have limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. By leveraging
the opportunity of the Produce Cooperative, Gleaners seeks to dramatically expand access to
nutritious fresh produce for these neighbors.

This fresh produce will be available in Marion County primarily through Pantry Partners, high-
capacity food pantries that have the ability to safely handle and store perishable food. These
pantries are also open at least twelve hours per week and offer some evening and weekend hours
so that low-income working families do not have to take time off from work in order to access
fresh produce.

Gleaners and its community partners seek to significantly impact the food insecurity crisis in
Marion County by doubling the volume of fresh fruits and vegetable available to food insecure
residents. Providing hungry families with nutritious produce is a cost-effective way of helping
them lessen their vulnerability to obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and
diabetes.

HANCOCK COUNTY
In the latest scientific study by Feeding America, the national food bank network, it is estimated
that 7,310 Hancock County residents lack regular access, to enough food to support an active,
healthy lifestyle for all household members and have limited or uncertain availability of
nutritionally adequate foods, a rate of 10.2 percent. This includes 2,560 food-insecure children in
Hancock County, a rate of 14.6 percent.

According to Map the Meal Gap 2017, a scientific estimate of food insecurity down to the county
level, Gleaners’ service area has a rate of food insecurity of 14.3 percent. This translates into an
estimated food insecure population of 316,470. The rate of child food insecurity is even higher
than that of the adult population and stands at 17.8 percent, or nearly one out of every five
children. The estimated number of food-insecure children in Gleaners’ service area is 99,600.
The Child Hunger Initiative is designed to reach the most vulnerable of the nearly 100,000 children
in central and southeast Indiana who are food insecure. The initiative’s two largest programs are
BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids and the School-Based Pantry program.
On October 5th, Gleaners Food Bank hosted its first conference for the BackSacks: Weekend
Food for Kids and School-Based Pantry programs. Two years prior, Gleaners hosted an
informational session for each School-Based Pantry location, but this event was geared towards
both programs and offered to Site Coordinators and principals at all participating schools. The
conference served as a training opportunity for Site Coordinators so that they may adhere to the
proper food safety guidelines as well as the guidelines set by Youth Programs staff. Principals
were also welcomed to attend in order to gain a better understanding of the programs and how
their school plays a pivotal role. The Youth Programs staff also used this opportunity to gather
feedback from schools. By doing so, Youth Programs hopes to continue expanding effectiveness
and efficiency for both programs. Gleaners plans on hosting future conferences every other year.

For the 2018-2019 school year, the Youth Programs department will be expanding its School-
Based Pantry program by including three new school locations: Arlington Middle School, IPS#54
Brookside Elementary, and IPS #94 George Buck Elementary. Each school has proven to be a
great asset for feeding students and the surrounding community and will continue to do so
through their partnership with Gleaners.

Kathy Hahn Keiner, Chief Programs & Agency Relations Officer, started her career with Gleaners
Food Bank in September 2009 and currently serves as the Chief Programs & Community
Collaborations Officer. Kathy supervises Sharvonne Williams, Youth Programs Manager, provides
direction, guidance, and acts as a secondary backup and ensures that the School-Based Pantry
program is operating in conformity with the food bank’s operational practices and strategic
objectives. Kathy brings over 20 years of non-profit management experience, having served with
distinction in leadership capacities at several non-profits.
Sharvonne Williams serves as Gleaners’ Youth Programs Manager.. Sharvonne manages the
BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids program, School-Based Pantry program, and Summer Meals
for Kids program. She also supervises the Youth Programs Coordinator. Sharvonne is
responsible for the following duties:
 Oversees the re-enrollment process for program sites
 Responsible for site monitoring and program compliance
 Collaborates with Gleaners’ operations team to design and execute efficient logistical
processes
 Provides top-notch customer service, both internally and externally
 Implements evaluation measures and facilitates reporting for all applicable grants and
internal data collection
 In conjunction with the Chief Programs & Community Collaborations Officer, revises
and improves, as necessary, program guidelines, standard operating procedures,
training materials, and all organizational resources related to the program
Matthew Brinson, Gleaners’ Youth Programs Coordinator, has served Gleaners for 3 years in
various capacities. He started in the warehouse overseeing volunteers that assembled the
BackSacks and Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) boxes . He then transitioned to
the front office where he performed outreach as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) team. He brings with him a good understanding of the assembly and inventory
needs of BackSacks and the overall impact they have on the children that receive them. Matthew
provides day-to-day coordination for the BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids program, School-
Based Pantry program, and Summer Meals for Kids program by performing the following duties:
 Coordinates the day-to-day tasks and implementation of the program sites
 Assists in conducting site monitoring and program compliance
 Supports all program partners through training and evaluations
 Provides top-notch customer service, both internally and externally
Sarah Huber, Gleaners’ first Nutrition Manager (10% FTE allocated to BackSacks), is a registered
dietitian nutritionist and joined the food bank in December 2017. Sarah conducts a periodic
nutrient analysis of the BackSacks menu to maximize the nutritional quality of the items provided
to the children. Through newsletters, Sarah regularly provides nutrition education resources to
BackSacks program coordinators.

Christina Basey, Volunteer Manager (0% FTE allocated to BackSacks), has been with Gleaners for
nearly five years. Christina is responsible for scheduling and deploying the volunteers needed to
help with the assembly of more than 7,500 weekly sacks of food for the children on the
BackSacks program. She has successfully recruited many individuals and groups to help with the
program and she works to ensure that all of them have a premier volunteer experience at
Gleaners.
HAMILTON COUNTY
According to Map the Meal Gap 2018, the latest update of Feeding America’s scientific study of
food insecurity in the United States, there are an estimated 26,760 people in Hamilton County
who are food-insecure. An estimated 10,260 of them are children who do not have dependable
access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life, resulting in a child food insecurity rate of
11.8 percent.

With over one-in-eight Hamilton County children facing food insecurity, Gleaners partners with 14
schools throughout the county to provide hungry students with nutritious food through the Child
Hunger Initiative. The programs of Gleaners’ Child Hunger Initiative remove the barrier of hunger
and its accompanying shame from a hungry student’s life so that she can concentrate on her
studies.

Gleaners provides all aspects of the Child Hunger Initiative programs - food, program costs like
administration and transportation, and even refrigerators and freezers - at no cost to the schools
or participating students and families.

HANCOCK COUNTY
In the latest scientific study by Feeding America, the nation’s network of food banks, it is
estimated that 7,310 Hancock County residents lack access, at times, to enough food for an
active, healthy life for all household members and have limited or uncertain availability of
nutritionally adequate foods, a rate of 10.2 percent. This includes 2,560 food-insecure children in
Hancock County, a rate of 14.6 percent.

MARION COUNTY
The Census Bureau estimates Marion County’s poverty rate at 17.6% and its child poverty rate at
25.0% (Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates). The County’s food insecurity
rate of 18.3%—the highest among all Indiana counties—translates to a target population of
170,990 food insecure individuals.

Feeding America, the nation’s network of food banks, estimates that nearly 94,780 children within
Gleaners’ 21-county service area are struggling with food insecurity – that’s one in five children.
Children who are affected by hunger are more likely to “repeat a grade in elementary school,
experience developmental impairments in areas like language and motor skills, and have more
social and behavioral problems.” Teachers working with Gleaners’ BackSacks program report that
a significant number of children arrive at school showing signs of chronic hunger and inability to
concentrate. Teachers also report that hunger is associated with higher levels of anxiety and
aggression, in addition to higher absenteeism and tardiness among students. In July 2012, the
Indiana Partnerships Center reported that elementary school students missing more than 10% of
classroom days ("chronic absence") score 40 points lower on ISTEP, Indiana's state standardized
test. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, "chronic absence in kindergarten is
associated with lower academic performance in first grade. For poor children, unable to make up
for time on task, the poor performance extended through fifth grade. By sixth grade, chronic
absence is a clear predictor of drop-out."

Federal school feeding programs do a good job of providing nutritious meals during school hours,
but leave children vulnerable to hunger over the weekends. Gleaners addresses the critical issue
of child weekend hunger through its BackSacks program. BackSacks are bundles of nutritious,
shelf-stable food items in safe, kid-friendly containers that children receive at school and take
home with them over weekends. The BackSacks are offered at no cost to the school or the
children participating. Each BackSack provides seven small meals made of food items such as
mandarin orange slices in 100% fruit juice, single-serve cereal bowls, single-serve packs of peanut
butter, and meals in pull-top cans. The BackSack menu:

 Meets approximately half of a child’s weekend needs for calories, total fat, protein,
carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamin A.
 Provides over 100% of a child’s weekend needs for vitamin C and 75% of a child’s
weekend needs for iron. It also provides about ¼ of a child’s weekend needs for
potassium and calcium, all of which help support healthy growth and development.
 Aligns with pediatric nutrition recommendations to limit saturated fat to <10% of calories
and sodium to <1900-2200 mg per day.

Because of the nutritional guidelines for the BackSacks program and the need for child-friendly
packaging and serving sizes, all food for the program has traditionally been purchased. For the
first time in BackSacks history, Gleaners has received a donated item that will be included in the
2018-2019 menu and will ultimately bring down the food cost of each bag from $2.31 to $2.16
per bag. By reducing the cost of each bag, we are stretching each dollar and maximizing the
effectiveness of the program.

The goal of the program is to reduce hunger over the weekends, when elementary school children
do not have access to meals provided at school. Keeping food-insecure children fed over the
weekend allows them to return to school on Monday focused on learning instead of experiencing
the pain and anxiety of chronic hunger.

There are four objectives for the BackSacks program:

1. Reduce self-reported hunger

2. Improve students’ ability to concentrate
3. Reduce absenteeism
4. Improve academic performance

To operate the program, Gleaners identifies schools with the greatest need, based on
free/reduced-fee meal program participation, and then engages the school administrators to
determine if they have an interest in participating in the program. In partnership with Gleaners, Six
Sigma experts from Eli Lilly and Company developed an evaluation tool that schools use to
identify children most in need of the BackSacks program. Gleaners helps train school personnel
to use the tool and helps them implement the program in a way suitable for that school. With this
training and their daily relationships with the children in their schools, teachers and staff are the
best resource for determining which children are most in need of this weekend hunger relief
program. Local school administration and staff know the children, observe their behaviors or
symptoms and have an understanding of their family situation. These symptoms may include:

 Rushing food lines

 Extreme hunger on Monday mornings
 Sneaking food out of trash cans
 Short attention span and/or inability to concentrate
 Chronic misbehavior that leads to disciplinary action

The BackSacks program is so successful in part because Gleaners empowers its school partners
to own and direct the program. Gleaners identifies potential partners by analyzing which schools
have the greatest need based on the number of students receiving free or reduced price school
meals. School administrators are then engaged to determine if they have an interest in the
program. Gleaners’ Youth Programs Team, including a Youth Programs Manager and Youth
Programs Coordinator, works with each participating school before the start of the academic year
to evaluate the effectiveness and size of the program in established schools

On Friday afternoons, many schools host a “Nutrition Club” that includes lessons on diet, food,
safety, and health – along with distributing BackSacks. Each school facilitates the program and is
equipped with extra BackSacks on hand to immediately add a child as the need arises. Working
with IUPUI dietetic interns, Gleaners was able to create a best practices tool kit for the Nutrition
Club model of BackSack distribution. The tool kit includes five-minute-or-less lesson plans that
are catered specifically for each age group. Topics covered include food safety, individual
spotlights on each of the BackSack items, and student led games on each MyPlate category.

Evaluations help Gleaners determine if the program’s four objectives are being met. Gleaners’
staff evaluates the program through surveys and evaluations, interviews, and ongoing email or
phone communication with school program coordinators and principals. At the end of each
semester, Gleaners’ staff surveys the teachers and staff at each of the 243 schools participating
in the program across the food bank’s 21-county service area. Site Coordinators from schools
with the BackSacks program reported the following results during the spring 2018 semester:

 91.4% reported they were very satisfied with the overall BackSacks program
 72.0% reported they think the BackSacks are very effective at meeting the needs of
chronically hungry children over the weekend
 77.4% reported improved academic performance among participating students
 70.4% reported improved attendance among participating students
 75.7% reported improved concentration among participating students
 70.0% reported a decrease in complaints of hunger among participating students
Now entering its twelfth year of operation, Gleaners’ BackSacks program is highly robust and
efficient. During the 2017-2018 school year alone, Gleaners distributed weekly BackSacks to
more than 9,100 students in 243 schools in 21 Indiana counties.

In December 2017, the food bank hired a Registered Dietitian as its first Nutrition Manager, Sarah
Huber, who is now leading Gleaners’ efforts to promote healthy eating. As Indiana’s first food
bank to hire a Registered Dietitian, Sarah’s nutrition platform impacts every single department at
Gleaners Food Bank. Sarah has implemented several nutritional initiatives for the Youth Programs
department. She includes interactive activities and handouts for each monthly newsletter sent out
to participating schools in the BackSack and School-Based Pantry Program.

Collaboration with volunteers, community partners, and dietitians allows Gleaners’ BackSacks
program to run efficiently. Volunteers are essential in preparing the BackSacks for shipment and
delivery. Without volunteer support, Gleaners would not be able to operate its program. In fiscal
year 2018, 4,099 volunteers contributed 11,522 hours to assemble over 240,000 BackSacks.
Gleaners takes great pride in the volunteers supporting all efforts to feed the hungry in Indiana.

BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
Hunger is a serious problem for children across Indiana. In Bartholomew County, one in six
children are considered food insecure and more than 5,360 children qualified for free and reduced
price school meals in 2017. Generous support from the Clarence E. and Inez R. Custer Foundation
helped Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana (Gleaners) distribute more than 30,000 meals to
chronically-hungry students in Bartholomew County during the 2017-2018 school year through its
BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids program (BackSacks).

DECATUR COUNTY
Map the Meal Gap 2017, a scientific study of food insecurity, recently estimated the food
insecurity rate for Decatur County children at 18.0%, meaning an estimated 1,180 children do not
have access to enough food to stay healthy.

FAYETTE COUNTY
The need for the BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids program remains high in Fayette County.
According to Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap 2017 study, Fayette County currently has an
estimated 1,150 food-insecure children – nearly one out of every four children.

The School-Based Pantry program, operating in 55 schools, helps underprivileged students thrive
and stay in school by providing their families with food at school that can be taken home and
prepared. A School-Based Pantry offers food assistance in a place where students and families
already visit, and serves the entire family, adding food to the home and relieving some of the
economic burden on parents and care givers. The program is provided at no cost to the schools,
students, or their families. During the 2017-2018 school year, Gleaners supported a network of 52
School-Based Pantries resulting in 27,515 pantry visits. 952,391 pounds of food were distributed
to food insecure children, of which 162,985 pounds were nutrient-rich fresh produce.

Having operated School-Based Pantries for eight years at more than 50 locations, Gleaners has
developed standard processes and operating procedures that support the efficiency,
sustainability, and impact of school-based pantries. Each participating school assigns a Site
Coordinator to oversee food orders, deliveries, and overall maintenance of the pantry. Gleaners’
Youth Programs Team communicates with the Site Coordinator to provide him/her with the
School-Based Pantry Handbook, login information for Gleaners’ online ordering system (AE3), and
food safety requirements. Each school-based pantry is required to complete a Host Sponsor
Agreement to ensure that the Site Coordinator, Principal, and Gleaners staff members each
understand and agree to their roles and responsibilities. Each pantry receives a monthly budget
(currently $1,000) from Gleaners that can be used to order a wide range of products through AE3.
The Site Coordinator has complete control over the items ordered, allowing him or her to stock
the pantry with food and materials that best serve the needs of the local population. At least two
affiliates of each pantry are required to obtain food safety certifications and provide
documentation to Gleaners.

Gleaners ensures the program has a greater impact by choosing program sites for School-Based
Pantries based on a combination of factors:

1) School needs as measured by either percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-
cost meals or the total number who are eligible
2) Levels of poverty and food insecurity within the community where the prospective school
is located
3) School capacity as measured by the availability of space on school property, suitable for a
pantry and the ability and willingness of school personnel to implement the program in a
safe, efficient, and effective way

Increasing fresh produce distributions to School-Based Pantries from 64,596 to 162,985 pounds
per year was a welcomed challenge for Gleaners’ Youth Programs and Agency Relations Teams.
Along the way, opportunities to increase program efficiency and innovation were realized. Firstly,
routine procedure in the past was to offer pantry pickups only one time per week. Staff members
overseeing the School-Based Pantry program quickly realized that pantries would need additional
opportunities to pick up items in order to handle higher volumes of perishable produce. Thus, the
number of opportunities agencies have to pick up pantry items was increased to three times per
week, giving schools greater flexibility when it comes to selecting, storing, and distributing fresh
produce.

Secondly, staff members overseeing the program were aware that some schools participating in
the School-Based Pantry program were hesitant about handling a larger volume of perishable
produce, even though it is the number one requested food item by pantry visitors. In response,
staff members came up with the idea of offering bonus Produce Giveaways, which turned out to
be an effective way to encourage schools to experiment with accepting a larger of volume of
fresh produce. The majority of pantry Site Coordinators have found that handling larger amounts
of fresh produce is not as burdensome as they thought it might be, and have been more likely to
request higher volumes of produce for their pantries as a result.

Both Child Hunger Initiative programs operate throughout the school year and participating
schools receive monthly deliveries of food from Gleaners. In addition, if schools continue the
program year-round, both School-Based Pantries distribute to students and their families during
summer months.

The School-Based Pantries Program includes a robust monitoring and evaluation component.
Site Coordinators are required to complete monthly recap reports, which are then submitted to
the Youth Programs staff. These reports ask how many households were served each month,
how many individuals were served, and the age demographics of each individual who visited the
pantry. Site Coordinators are encouraged to share personal stories and submit any concerns or
questions to be addressed by the Youth Programs staff. Gleaners carefully monitors the number
of pantry attendees at each location to determine any inconsistencies between months. For the
2017-2018 school year, pantries averaged a success rate of 99% of Site Coordinators who
completed monthly reports. In addition to the monthly reports, Site Coordinators are required to
complete surveys at the beginning and end of each school year. These surveys are intended to
gather information regarding the effectiveness of the program and whether or not Site
Coordinators notice a reduction of the adverse effects of chronic hunger, including attendance,
complaints of hunger, and concentration.

In the Spring 2018 Survey:

 65% of Site Coordinators reported the pantry is “very effective at meeting the needs of
students”
 67% of Site Coordinators reported that student complaints about hunger were reduced
 48% of Site Coordinators “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that parental engagement improved
at their school
 31% of Site Coordinators “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that student attendance improved

HAMILTON COUNTY
Gleaners operates the School-Based Pantry program for students and their families in Hamilton
County at two schools: Hamilton Heights High School and Sheridan Community School. The
School-Based Pantry program in Hamilton County is currently providing food and critical grocery
items for over 200 people with average of nearly 55 households each month. Gleaners’ staff
trains school personnel, helps identify a suitable location for the pantry and provides a freezer and
refrigerator.. Sheridan’s School-Based Pantry is also open to community members who may not
have a student at the school. The program offers frozen meat, fresh produce, dairy products, and
shelf-stable food.

JOHNSON COUNTY
The Youth Programs team encourages Site Coordinators to provide personal accounts along with
their monthly reports. This exercise helps affiliates feel more connected to the program, and the
stories themselves illustrate how the program has impacted students on a personal level. A Site
Coordinator from the Franklin Community School Corporation recently shared this story:

A student came in to talk to me (pantry coordinator) to ask what I was doing. He noticed
that we had bottled water and asked if he could have some. He had been outside on a 90
degree day and was extremely thirsty. He started asking questions about what and who
the food was for. I explained. He started to get emotional and asked if he could have
some. I said, "of course." He then went on to explain that his mother is home-bound and
his dad left a couple of weeks prior. He said they had no idea what they were going to do
for food because his mom couldn't drive and the grocery store was too far for him to walk.
I happily helped get him plenty of food for the following two weeks, drove it to his house,
and sat with his mom to discuss available community resources. You could see a sigh of
relief on both of their faces as the worry about where they were going to get their next
meal had been removed. They were beyond appreciative of the help from our pantry.

MARION COUNTY
Thanks to the passion and generosity of the Buckingham Foundation, George Buck Elementary
also operates an onsite food pantry which offers food and household items to students and their
families free of charge. The pantry is outfitted with refrigerators, freezers, shelving units, and an
appropriate space to store and distribute food while allowing privacy for each client. The pantry
currently operates weekly with the pantry manager, Yvonne Cannon-Hollins, and staff delivering
emergency food upon request. Staff and administrators at George Buck have decided the best
way they can serve the needs of their students moving forward is by investing more in this school
pantry, and discontinuing the BackSacks program. Gleaners is excited to help strengthen and
sustain this pantry by partnering with George Buck through its School-Based Pantry Program.

Low-income families are often faced with the difficulty of gaining access to resources in their
communities. The Mobile Pantry program expands Gleaners’ capacity to distribute food by
removing barriers that prevent access to underserved areas. Designed as food pantry on wheels,
Mobile Pantries work to fulfill the needs of families and individuals that fall outside the reach of
agency partners in the area. A truckload of food is distributed to clients through a farmer’s
market-style distribution where clients choose which foods they take.
A mobile pantry distribution can serve enough food for 150 to 300 households within a two-hour
period. In 2017, 352 Mobile Pantry deliveries provided the equivalent of 2.53 million meals to a
duplicated household population of 214,710 people.

In order to serve as many Hoosiers as possible, Mobile Pantry vehicles must be equipped to hold
large amounts of food. The Mobile Pantry is a customized, refrigerated, beverage-type vehicle
that provides enough food for up to 7,500 meals, delivered to a designated community site,
allowing food-insecure clients to select what they will use at home for their families. The trucks
are specifically designed with ten bays, both dry and refrigerated, to accommodate for frozen
meats, dairy, and produce. Mobile Pantries allow individuals the opportunity to select nutritious
foods to fit their dietary and personal needs. Community volunteers help distribute food to local
residents who attend the distributions.

86 year-old Woman at Greensburg Mobile: “It helps to have Amy and the children here with me.”
When Amy’s grandmother first broke her arm, Amy was making trips back and forth about 3 days
a week. She recently broke her leg and has been down with that ever since, and not with the
pressure on the other leg is difficult for her. “I have two walkers but am lucky to make it from the
bedroom to the kitchen but use a wheelchair when I go out,” she said. Amy’s grandmother said, “It
[the mobile pantry] means an awful lot because there is six in the house. My granddaughter and
her family moved in to take care of me. There’s six of us and only one worker; her husband works.
They have the extra stuff we can get here that helps us. She can make a meal out of just about
anything.”

BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
Sarah S. is 87. She grew up in the little town of Glasgow, Kentucky, but she came to Indiana in
1955. She and her husband had eight children and raised them in Garden City, a tiny community
in Columbus Township. Two of her children, along with her husband, have passed away. She’s
friendly with the folks in line. “I’m everybody’s Mama,” she laughs and says. “It’s a good set up like
this. Food is so high, everything’s high. I sure do appreciate this, though. It really helps people
out.” Sarah had a stroke two years ago. She uses a walker or a wheelchair to help her when she
can’t stand in the longer waiting lines.

HANCOCK COUNTY
If an individual attends a Mobile Pantry or Hancock County Food Pantry distribution, then they are
self-declaring their need for hunger relief. Because the Hancock County Food Pantry distributes
commodity food products from the United States Department of Agriculture, all clients must self-
declare that their household income falls below the guidelines designated by the USDA (185% of
the poverty line). 19 Mobile Pantry distributions in Hancock County are open to the general
population of food-insecure residents, while monthly Senior Mobile Pantry distributions are
designed for local food-insecure seniors age 55 and over. The Hancock County Food Pantry
requires proof of residency within Hancock County. In accordance with the state of Indiana, any
client information beyond name, address, household size and signature is given voluntarily by the
client. Voluntary information requested is typically age breakdown within a household and
number of veterans.

To provide local impact through this opportunity, Gleaners seeks to increase the amount of fresh
produce for its Mobile Pantry program, with an anticipated 3,000 pounds of fresh produce on
each of Hancock County’s 31 mobile food distributions. Mobile distributions are a collaboration
with local community partners that eliminates the need for volunteers and staff to transport,
unload and store the food on their premises. This approach reduces the amount of handling that
is required to distribute the food to clients.

If an individual attends a Mobile Pantry or Hancock County Food Pantry distribution, then they are
self-declaring their need for hunger relief. Because the Hancock County Food Pantry distributes
commodity food products from the United States Department of Agriculture, all clients must self-
declare that their household income falls below the guidelines designated by the USDA (185% of
the poverty line). Nineteen Mobile Pantry distributions in Hancock County are open to the general
population of food-insecure residents, while monthly Senior Mobile Pantry distributions are
designed for local food-insecure seniors age 55 and over. The Hancock County Food Pantry
requires proof of residency showing that a client is a resident of Hancock County. In accordance
with the state of Indiana, any client information beyond name, address, household size and
signature is given voluntarily by the client. Voluntary information requested is typically age
breakdown within a household and number of veterans.

Former IMPD Chief Troy Riggs’ data-driven review of Indianapolis public safety and quality of life
resulted in the identification of six neighborhoods as focus areas for the city's Community Action
Relief Effort (CARE). In response, during the summers of 2015-2018, Gleaners has collaborated
with Indianapolis public safety employees to provide food, nutrition education, and outreach in
each of these high-need neighborhoods. Summer is a critical time for food-insecure families with
school-age children because they do not have access to school breakfast and lunch. The
program is a compassionate, effective and innovative response to the nutritional needs of
residents who live in the six focus neighborhoods.

The CARE Mobile Pantry Program differs from other relief efforts because of its scale and impact.
In 2018, the CARE Mobile Pantry Program distributed 619,646 pounds of nutritious food with a
wholesale value of approximately $1,034,809 to more than 57,000 duplicated individuals at
distribution sites in six economically distressed Indianapolis neighborhoods. The value of this
food acts as an economic stimulus for these neighborhoods, allowing families to divert funds that
would have been spent on food to other essential budget items such as rent, utilities,
transportation, or childcare.

The program not only provided food, but also supported the health and wellness of residents by
distributing a highly nutritious mix of foods. 92% of the food items distributed were designated as
'Foods 2 Encourage' by Feeding America, and 52% (320,290 pounds) of the food items distributed
were fresh produce.

Surveyed clients reported the following impact:

- 78% said participating in a CARE distribution 'significantly impacted' the family's food security.
- 78% said participating in a CARE distribution 'significantly impacted' the family's ability to spend
less on groceries.
- 78% were 'very satisfied' and 23% were 'satisfied' with his/her experience at a CARE distribution.

The program also connected clients to support services and encouraged improved "community
policing" efforts by promoting positive interactions between residents of high-crime
neighborhoods and Indianapolis first responders. Wrap around support service providers at CARE
distributions included (not an exhaustive list):

1.) The Eskenazi Midtown Mobile Crisis Team provided resources to 300 individuals about
additional food sources, mental health, substance abuse, housing, employment, legal services,
veteran services, and domestic violence.
2.) The St. Vincent Mobile Mammography unite provided free mammograms to eight women
onsite.
3.) The WIC Mobile Unit conducted onsite WIC appointments/registrations for 50 people at three
distributions.
4.) The Raphael Health Center shared information on their programs and services with more than
500 individuals, and signed 50 individuals up for their health services.
5.) Christel House DORS spoke with 150 individuals, and signed five people up for their high
school diploma program.
6.) Gleaners distributed 5,250 SNAP informational flyers and submitted 92 SNAP applications for
families.
7.) The Christamore House Family and Community Center shared information on their programs
such as job placement assistance, after school services, and financial literacy classes. *One client
shared that CARE wrap around services such as this made her feel like she was getting a hand
'up' instead of a hand 'out.'
8.) The Marion County Commission on Youth (MCCOY) connected clients to community
resources for parents and children. *One client was a domestic violence survivor, homeless, and
unemployed. She is now living at The Julien Center, seeking employment, and is scheduled to
attend the next Center for Working Families orientation.
2018 C.A.R.E. Bag Program: On March 20th of 2017, the City of Indianapolis partnered with
Gleaners Food Bank to pilot a Community Action Relief Effort (CARE) Bag Program. Through this
pilot, the Office of Public Health and Safety coordinated with Gleaners to provide sacks of
groceries to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers operating out of the
East District for distribution directly to residents in need.

The CARE Bags are an expansion of the CARE Mobile Pantry program, which provides fresh
groceries one a week during the summer to locations where families are known to be food-
insecure.
The CARE Bag pilot has increased the availability of nutritious food items as IMPD officers in East
District began carrying sacks of groceries in their cruisers. Over 100 Bags have been accessed by
officers and are actively being distributed. The officers have the ability to distribute these sacks
directly to the individuals and families they are called upon to serve. Gleaners has now expanded
the pilot program to include IMPD North District and now a year later, looking to expand to other
IMPD Districts and Public Safety Departments responsibly.

The CARE Bag pilot will also serve as a test of the City’s new social service referral system,
Community Officer. The mobile application will allow IMPD officers to make referrals from the
field for services related to food insecurity, case management, behavioral and healthcare
resources and other community-based interventions. The Office of Public Health and Safety will
coordinate with local service providers to ensure residents referred through the CARE Bags pilot
receive the information and resources they need to address these underlying root causes of
crime

IMPD will continue to work with Gleaners and other community partners on innovative strategies
to address hunger, improve quality of life and provide beat cops with resources for the
neighborhoods they serve.

On July 9, 2015, Feeding America published a study entitled, Baby Boomers and Beyond: Facing
Hunger After Fifty. According to the report, among older (age 50 to 64) client households of the
Feeding America network:

 38% report watering down food or drink

 63% face spending tradeoffs and have to choose between food and medical care
 73% report disability or poor health that keeps them from working or seeking work.

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana’s Senior Hunger Initiative addresses an ongoing crisis in central
Indiana: tens of thousands of our senior neighbors cannot afford to purchase the food they need.
There are multiple causes of senior hunger:

 Many older workers who lost jobs during the Great Recession have found it very difficult
to re-enter the workforce
 Significant numbers of older do not have resources beyond meager social security
benefits
 Many struggle to afford needed medicine and put food on their tables
 Among households that depend on food from Gleaners, 29% include grandparents who
have responsibility for grandchildren who live with them, a potential barrier to seeking
employment. In fact, the continuing opioid epidemic in Indiana has left many
grandparents as the sole providers for their grandchildren.
Nearly 18% of the people who rely on food from Gleaners are age 55 and over. This translates to
an estimated 46,934 unduplicated seniors annually, an increase of 92% since 2009. Eight out of
ten live in metropolitan Indianapolis and access food assistance primarily through local food
pantries. Charitable food assistance for this population is critical to ensuring they have enough to
eat.

Not only are more seniors seeking food assistance, they are in need for longer periods of time.
According to Feeding America, among older persons (65 and over) who are accessing the hunger
relief system, 56% are “recurrent pantry clients and have visited a pantry at least every month
within the prior year, suggesting that the fixed incomes of the elderly may be insufficient to
provide for basic needs.”

Seniors living in food insecure households frequently do not have sufficient access to nutrients
that are critical to healthy aging. This is especially disturbing for seniors who suffer from chronic
diseases and need to be able to manage them. According to Hunger in America, the 2014 Feeding
America national hunger study:

 Among households with at least one senior, the rates of high blood pressure (77%) and
diabetes (47%) are notably higher than in the general client household population (high
blood pressure 58%; diabetes 33%)
 50% of households with at least one senior report facing unpaid medical bills
 74% of households with at least one senior report purchasing the cheapest food available,
knowing it was not the healthiest option.

The Senior Hunger Initiative seeks to respond to growing food insecurity among seniors by
providing them with additional, convenient options for accessing food assistance. Seniors are
often reluctant to access charitable and government food programs. The Senior Hunger
Initiative’s senior-centered distribution channels provide a comfortable environment where
seniors can receive individualized

The activities of Gleaners’ Senior Hunger Initiative consist of Gleaners delivering nutritious food
items to a variety of community sites where seniors congregate, including food pantries, senior
centers, and faith communities. Distribution channels for the food are tailored to the communities
where the program operates and include highly efficient and cost-effective Senior Mobile Pantry
distributions; senior shopping days and senior food sections at food pantries; and senior-only
food pantries, primarily located at senior-serving agencies.

 Senior Food Pantries at brick-and-mortar locations that serve senior exclusively.

 Senior Shopping Days allow agency partners serving all populations to provide additional
assistance to senior citizens by opening their doors to clients age 55+ at certain times.
 Senior Shopping Sections are spaces that hold additional food products exclusively for
senior within agency partners that serve all populations. Senior who visit the pantry are
invited to visit the seniors-only section for additional calories and senior-friendly food
items.
  Senior Mobile Pantries are an efficient way to increase capacity in targeted geographic
areas that have a need greater brick-and-mortar food pantries can address.

Gleaners is also committed to amplifying impact by partnering with other stakeholders working
on hunger and poverty reduction. To that end, complementary wrap around services, including
SNAP Outreach and Medicaid/Medicare Outreach, are offered in tandem with senior programs.

In fiscal year 2018, through these food distribution channels, the Senior Hunger Initiative
accomplished the following for food-insecure Hoosiers:

 Distributed a total of 353,946 pounds of food to 46,316 seniors through 11 senior

agencies in five counties.
 Operated 111 Senior Mobile Pantries in ten counties serving a total of 871,788 pounds of
food to 28,287 seniors.
 Assisted 396 seniors to register for SNAP benefits, resulting in 266,033 additional senior
meals. Seniors comprised 37% of clients reached through Gleaners’ SNAP Outreach
efforts.
 Distributed a total of 575,137 pounds of fresh produce to seniors (Jul 1, 2017-Jun 30,
2018).

Over the course of fiscal year 2019, we anticipate providing the equivalent of 1.3 million meals to
a duplicated population of 44,354 seniors.

Gleaners relies on several key partnerships to help ensure its Senior Hunger Initiative is a success:

 Sloan Shockley is the Co-Chair of the Elders at the Table (EAT) Coalition, which works
together to maintain, enhance, and expand the network of providers that meet seniors’
basic food needs.
 Key partnerships with senior-focused resource centers currently include Hendricks County
Senior Services, which operates a Senior Food Pantry; Jennings County Senior Resource
Center, which operates a food pantry with a Senior Shopping Day; and Shelby County
Senior Services, which partners to provide Senior Mobile Pantries.
 Key sponsors of Gleaners’ senior distributions include Oak Street Health, AARP, Anthem,
American Dairy Association, and Community Action of Greater Indianapolis.
 Gleaners also partners with organizations to provide wrap-around services for seniors,
including the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, which provides
Medicare/Medicaid Outreach; Changing Foot Prints, which offers free gently used
footwear to those in need; and Heart and Soul Free Clinic, which provides a free medical
clinic at mobile pantries in Hamilton County.

MARION COUNTY
In Marion County, where food pantry density is high, several distribution channels are tailored to
the needs of seniors:

 A monthly senior “shopping” day takes place at the following food pantries:
o Marion County;
 Christ Our King Pantry
 Gleaner’s onsite food pantry, Community Cupboard
 Westminster Neighborhood Services
 St. John’s Storehouse in Speedway

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana has implemented a blended SNAP Program model where it
provides in-depth training to all partnering organizations providing application assistance on its
behalf. Gleaners takes very seriously its charge to prepare volunteers who donate their time to the
SNAP program. Gleaners conducts these in-person trainings with the assistance of the Indiana
Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). The training includes the following
components:

 An overview of federal and state guidelines associated with SNAP

 The roles and responsibilities of organizations that partner with Gleaners to conduct
SNAP Outreach
 Step-by-step instructions on how to conduct SNAP Outreach and application assistance

Gleaners’ SNAP Outreach staff members shadow volunteers to ensure they are following the
required steps. In addition, Gleaners makes certain that all training materials are approved by
FSSA in advance of any training. Lastly, Gleaners does routine follow-ups with partnering
organizations to assess their programs in providing application assistance.

Residents in both rural and urban communities in underserved areas often experience barriers in
accessing SNAP benefits. These barriers include:

 Limited access to food pantries or other resources within their county

 Misconceptions regarding SNAP, e.g., applying for SNAP will negatively impact their SSI
or SSDI payments
 Stigma regarding SNAP among close-knit communities, as individuals may not want to be
seen as dependent on the government
 Lack of awareness of SNAP and how to apply for benefits

Gleaners will address barriers in underserved areas through the following methods:

 Gleaners will conduct outreach and community presentations to inform communities of

the benefits of SNAP participation and to dispel program myths
  Application assistance will be offered at locations convenient to rural and urban residents
to ensure ease of access in applying for SNAP benefits

Gleaners is diligently working to provide SNAP Outreach and application assistance services in
these underserved areas. Gleaners provides outreach and application assistance at high-volume
pantries, mobile pantries, community agencies, and retail grocery outlets. We have learned and
determined which locations have greater need for SNAP Outreach. This allows us to target high-
need locations and utilize our staff time and resources efficiently. One best practice we have
implemented is to take detailed notes regarding our participation at sites. For example, we track
the number of applications submitted for the time spent at each site. This “return on investment,”
is an important indicator in determining need and our presence at various sites.

Underutilization of SNAP among seniors is a major barrier to food security (59% of eligible seniors
are not enrolled). Many seniors do not enroll in SNAP due to a lack of understanding about
program eligibility; confusion about SNAP income guidelines and documentation needed; and
difficulty completing the SNAP application.

Many seniors experience barriers when attempting to access SNAP benefits. These include:

 Lack of understanding regarding program eligibility rules

 Confusion about SNAP income guidelines and proper documentation needed to verify
eligibility
 Difficulty completing the SNAP application due to the form’s length, complexity, and small
print
 Misconceptions with regard to SNAP, e.g., many seniors believe that SNAP is designed to
serve families with children

Underutilization of SNAP leads to higher reliance on private hunger solutions, such as food
pantries. Many seniors, though, struggle to find transportation to and from pantries. Others
struggle with limited mobility, meaning they are able to get to the pantry but they are unable to
wait in long lines or carry heavy bundles of food. Still others in need are able to access food
pantries, but choose not to come due to stress, anxiety, or shame. For these reasons, helping
senior’s access food pantries in and of itself is challenging.

Once seniors can access pantries, the challenge becomes providing them the right quality and
quantity of foods to support healthy aging. Because seniors experience higher rates of chronic
illnesses, it is important to provide them with diet-conscious choices. It is particularly hard to
provide low sodium protein items (e.g.: canned chicken) due to budget constraints. It can also be
hard to provide convenient portion sizes, especially of fresh produce (e.g.: seniors may choose to
not take a 5 lb. bag of potatoes because they are too heavy to carry or because they will go bad
before they are able to eat them).

Gleaners’ SNAP Outreach aims to remove senior barriers to SNAP access by educating clients on
SNAP eligibility guidelines, answering questions, and providing application assistance and follow
up at senior distributions.
How Gleaners will address barriers to usage of SNAP among seniors:

 Ensuring seniors are aware of SNAP, outreach and application assistance will be provided
at senior centers, pantries, senior mobile pantries and other senior food distribution sites
 Following up with seniors at least one week after they have submitted their SNAP
application to see if they received a response from the state office
 Distributing nutrition-focused handouts educating seniors about healthy eating on a
limited budget

Gleaners will conduct outreach and application assistance at sites where co-located services
such as food assistance, health care and insurance, employment, workforce, housing, etc. are
provided. Additionally, Gleaners will connect clients to other needed social services by referring
them to its outreach partner, Connect2Help 2-1-1. Connect2Help 2-1-1’s mission is to facilitate
connections between people who need human services and those who provide them.