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Mobile summer food pantry expected to help record number in 2017

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Tens of thousands of residents in Marion County don’t know where they’ll get their next meal.

According to a study by the Indiana Association of Food Banks, as many as 175,000 Marion County residents face the fear of going hungry every day.

To fight the hunger epidemic, Gleaners Food Banks is teaming up with the city once again to offer the CARE Summer Mobile Food Pantry. In its previous two years since being in operation, CARE (Community Action Relief Effort) has helped around 100,000 residents, and this year it’s expected to help another 60,000 people.

During a news conference on Monday, Mayor Joe Hogsett was joined by Gleaners and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Bryan Roach on the city’s east side. Mayor Hogsett announced plans to kick off the summer mobile pantry. After the news conference, dozens of people lined up in the heat, some for hours, for their turn to fill their bags with things like meat, fruit, vegetables and bread. The mobile pantry travels to six different neighborhoods in Indy. They’re chosen based on poverty and crime rate. The goal is to reduce hunger and in turn reduce crime.

“Thanks to this program, a woman who would’ve otherwise been apprehended for trespassing and theft was instead given the food and the peace of mind that she so desperately needed,” said Mayor Hogsett.

For more information on the mobile pantry or how you can help out, click here.

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