INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana State Department of Agriculture this week announced a historic $2 million in funding for the state’s 11 food banks, doubling last year’s funding. The money was authorized by the Indiana General Assembly as part of the budget bill passed the last session.
Last year, nearly one in six Americans received food assistance from charities, according to the release. In the same year, 13% of Hoosiers experienced food insufficiency, which means they lacked consistent access to a healthy amount of food.
Indiana’s 11 food banks feed into pantries and soup kitchens across the state, allowing various types of food distribution centers to receive additional food products. Funds were distributed to food banks according to the Emergency Food Assistance Program’s fair share percentages, which are informed by poverty and unemployment levels for each county.
Julio Alonso, CEO of Hoosier Hills Food Bank in Bloomington, expressed gratitude from the state for the funding and emphasized the impact of higher prices, and said, “The increase in funding this year is especially timely because inflation has taken a hard toll on many families and seniors. We’ve seen increases in people seeking help with food and we, along with our fellow food banks across the state, have been working hard to keep them fed even as our own costs have increased.”
