“If you had proper nutrition in a community for more than a year, what would happen?”
That’s the question Nutrition Secure Indianapolis, an initiative announced Tuesday at the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center, aims to answer.
The initiative, spearheaded by Elanco Animal Health and various corporate partners, is a collaboration with the neighborhood center and nearby Edison School of the Arts to provide 250 families with access to nutritious food.
The Greenfield-based animal pharmaceuticals company is expected to move into its new headquarters on the west side of downtown Indianapolis, along the White River, in 50 days. Partners in Nutrition Secure Indianapolis have identified families in need at the school, located not far from Elanco’s new headquarters, to receive weekly food aid as part of a study to better understand the link between food access and positive outcomes like academic performance.
The 2024 Feeding America “Map the Meal Gap” study found that in 2023, the year for which data is most recently available, nearly a quarter of Marion County children—more than 57,000—experienced food insecurity.
School faculty helped to select food-insecure families to take part in the project. Participating families will receive an 8-pound protein box and a 12-pound produce box every Thursday.
Jeff Simmons, Elanco’s CEO, said the project is set to begin this fall. (Simmons also founded Hatch for Hunger, a nonprofit that connects farmers to food banks to ensure families that use them have access to protein-rich meals and one of the project’s many partners.)
Principal Amy Berns said there is no specific age range that will participate in the initiative and study. The school serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Berns said children coming to school hungry can’t focus on learning when they’re worrying where their next meal will come from.
“Sometimes the food our students get at school is the only food they have access to,” Berns told IBJ. “So something like this is really going to be life-changing for a lot of our families and their kids.”
Program also seeks to understand food insecurity
Researchers from Purdue University will also work with the initiative to track and study the link between proper nutrition and positive outcomes for these food-insecure families, with assistance from Indiana University Health and Elevance, the Indianapolis-based insurance company.
Participants will be asked to self-report data, like demographics and health information, through surveys. Families will also have the option of collecting and reporting physical data, including blood pressure or A1C levels.
Along with groceries, those families will have access to financial planning, nutrition, cooking and gardening courses, as well as help applying for government food assistance programs.
Lee Thomas, senior director of communications for Elanco, told IBJ that the company is still seeking new sponsors for the program. Its current backers include companies like Rose Acre Farms, Tyson Foods, Splenda, Kroger and Land O’ Lakes.
Thomas said the cost of the first year of the program is $600,000.
“We expect this number to evolve as we build our program out beyond our initial, one-year commitment,” Thomas said.
Heather Pease, president of the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center, said that west Indianapolis “is full of the most amazing and hardworking people you’ll find anywhere and yet also plagued with limited housing options, high food insecurity, few transportation choices, a low high school graduation rate and an unemployment rate twice that of Indianapolis overall.”
Pease added that every Wednesday, a line wraps out to Morris Street with hundreds of people coming to the center’s food pantry. She’s hopeful this partnership will help alleviate some of that need.
“If it all starts with basic needs,” she said, “Chapter One is increasing access to healthy food.”