Ag department awards $1M to Hoosier food banks

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture has awarded 11 Indiana food banks a combined total of $1 million to support their efforts in feeding Hoosiers in need. The funding was provided by the Indiana Legislature, as part of its biennial budget.

The ISDA says the distribution amounts were determined using The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TFAP) fair share percentages for Indiana, which captures poverty and unemployment levels in each county.

“Food banks and pantries are vital in their communities around the state, and they cannot do their work without adequate funding and volunteers. I am proud to support their efforts in making Hoosier families and seniors more food secure,” said Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch, who also serves as the Indiana Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, a state food bank association, nearly 1 in 6 Americans received food assistance from the charitable sector last year. The nonprofit says demand was even stronger in 2020, during the height of the pandemic.

“New and pressing challenges – including war abroad and inflation and higher costs of food, gas and other necessities – are impacting the ability of individuals and families, especially with lower incomes, to make ends meet. For any Hoosier to be unsure from where their next meal will come is unacceptable,” said Emily Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry.

List of food banks to receive funding for fiscal year 2023:

• Community Harvest Food Bank – $101,400
• Dare to Care Food Bank – $37,400
• Food Bank of Northern Indiana – $115,000
• Food Bank of Northwest Indiana – $97,700
• Food Finders Food Bank, Inc. – $93,900
• FreeStore Foodbank– $9,000
• Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc. – $318,200
• Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Inc. – $42.600
• Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central IN, Inc. – $77,500
• Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank, Inc. – $44,000
• Tri-State Food Bank, Inc. – $63,300