Food bank to share annual report

Hoosier Hills Food Bank will have its annual meeting Friday to announce the report from 2008 and its expectations for the upcoming year.

“It’s our annual meeting to update the community on how the past year went,” Julio Alonso, executive director of Hoosier Hills, said.

He said organizers will inform the community about successes and challenges, how things are going and what they hope to achieve in the future.

After a successful move in October 2008, Alonso said, the food bank accomplished more in 2008 than possible during previous years. Friday’s meeting is also an opportunity to allow the community to see the new location.

Hoosier Hills serves 99 agencies in a six-county service area, but only by donations and volunteers can it provide resources to these agencies.

Volunteers include individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, students, sororities and fraternities. These volunteers complete tasks such as checking food for quality, packing the food and helping set up special events.

“The food bank acts as a central clearing house for donated food,” Alonso said. “We collect it, store it and then distribute it to agencies that have feeding programs.”

Among these agencies are food pantries and soup kitchens.

“Even though we aren’t one-on-one with the people in need, we know that we are behind the scenes,” said senior Jennifer Kahn. Her apparel merchandising class is participating in 10 hours of community service at the food bank.

The community has always supported the Retail Studies Organization, Kahn said, and volunteering for Hoosier Hills is a way to give back to the community.

Senior Jennifer Jameson works with the Advocate for Community Engagement program, a program through the Office of Service-Learning, and helps students such as Kahn tie the experience back to their classes.

“IU students really do a lot here,” Jameson said. “IU students are definitely at the heart of the food bank.”

IU students, however, only make up part of the generous community, Alonso said.
People donate the food in a variety of ways. The majority of food is donated locally through families, community food drives and food and grocery stores.

They also “rescue” food from local restaurants and through their meal-share program by repackaging, freezing and distributing the meals.

A third of the bank’s food comes from federal commodities such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture programs.

Hoosier Hills also obtains nationally donated food from businesses such as Kraft and Proctor & Gamble through its membership with Feeding America, a national network of food banks.

The food bank purchases about 3 percent of their food, but Alonso said through their membership with Feeding America, Hoosier Hills purchases its food for a low price.

“The food bank is very much a community-driven organization,” said Alonso. “It really takes the whole range of the community to do what we do.”