Since moving from a modest 12,000-square-foot barn in Gary to a 75,000-square-foot facility in Merrillville, the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana has collected and distributed more than 40 million pounds of food.
And it not slowing down.
The move to 6490 Broadway happened in 2018 and the following year — its first full year in the new digs — the nonprofit set what was then a record of 6 million pounds.
In 2020, COVID-19 hit and pushed the total to 11 million pounds.
“That nearly doubled our capacity,” says Amy Briseño, vice president of Development and Communications for the organization. “No one would have predicted that. It just crushed that record.
“That’s really amazing when you think about it. It accelerated our growth. We were able to respond to it due to the wonderful support locally from the communities. Companies, corporations and individuals were able to give as well as COVID response money and the grants.”
She added that large institutions such as universities and schools and others that had to shut down and had an abundance of food sent it right to the food bank.
The food bank has since distributed 9 million pounds in 2021, 7 million each in 2022 and last year.
All of it serves families, children, seniors and individuals in Lake and Porter Counties.
COVID-19 also changed the way the organization does certain things, such as outdoor services, boxed meals and the National Guard implementing its own system inside the facility for more efficient ways to collect and distribute.
During the shut down, National Guard members were the only people allowed to work in the building.
After that, “we had to make our own army and we had to recruit a large volume of volunteers just for our daily operational needs,” Briseno says. “They were carrying out what the National Guard helped create.”
Briseno said the Food Bank of NWI is not the largest such facility in the state, but it does have the largest caseload, including 1,700 senior citizens.
“It’s sobering,” she says. “It’s astounding to think about all of the elders who are food insecure.”
The food bank’s big fundraiser, the Hunger Hike, took place Sept. 21 at the Lake Country Fairgrounds. Individuals and teams walked to raise more than $1.2 million.
Briseno said that the network of agency partners shared in the event. The food bank partners with 110 agencies in the area.
“They help fundraise for us, and we fundraise for them,” she says. “It helps strengthen our agency partner network. They create their own teams, and we encourage people, companies and sponsors to donate to them.”
The food bank is also ramping up with a locker program that allows people to order their food and pick it up at an area locker at their convenience.
Lockers are available in Merrillville, East Chicago, Gary, Valparaiso and South Haven, which plans for more.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Briseno says. “We’re one of the first food banks in the Feeding America Network to have a successful locker program up and running.”
The group is always on the lookout for volunteers — especially for its mobile market program in which the food bank provides drive-thru service in various communities.
“We always need mobile-market volunteers first and foremost,” Briseno says. “We heed to have enough volunteers to get that food out every month.”
She adds that volunteers also are particularly needed in the colder months.
