Many of my neighbors will begin to run out of food in a few days. Unless.
Unless we work together as a community. Unless we step up with determination and compassion to meet an emerging urgent crisis.
As the federal government shutdown continues, SNAP benefits (food stamps) ended on Nov. 1 in Indiana. The pain will start to hit the first of our neighbors on Nov. 5, when their monthly benefits normally would be replenished.
How many neighbors? About 600,000 Hoosiers – roughly one in 12 – rely on food stamps to feed their families. So, the needs are tremendous, but not insurmountable.
At Shepherd Community Center on the near Eastside of Indianapolis, we can’t do anything about the government shutdown. But, with the help of great partners, we are working hard to ensure that our neighbors have enough nutritious food to meet their families’ needs as our elected leaders discuss solutions to the current political impasse.
One of those partners is Gleaners Food Bank, under the outstanding leadership of Chief Executive Officer Fred Glass. Working with Gleaners, we are filling and distributing boxes of food to our neighbors.
That is in addition to our normal food distribution programs, which include a food pantry, mobile food delivery, and backpacks stuffed with nutritious food that we send home with our students each Friday to ensure they don’t go hungry on the weekend.
We are in conversations with multiple other partners in the community to distribute the Gleaners boxes to the neighbors they serve. Those partners include Indianapolis Public Schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations.
We need many distribution points and many organizations working together to make sure our neighbors know that help is available and to ensure that we have enough food to meet the surge in demand.
I am incredibly thankful for the leadership and generosity of Traders Point Christian Church, which issued an immediate grant to pay for the initial cost of the new Gleaners boxes. For Christians, this is what loving our neighbors means. We step up with urgency and selflessness when the elderly person next door or the family across town needs our help.
And they need our help now.
The current crisis is beyond the means of any one organization to handle. So, we will continue to work with partners – churches, businesses, nonprofits and individuals – across our city and state to ensure that families have enough nutritious food to eat.
Please join us.
Jay Height is executive director of Shepherd Community Center in Indianapolis.
