Gleaners Food Bank Launches New Plan To Combat Hunger

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana announced a new strategic plan Thursday, part of Hunger Action Day. The plan is called Food Bank of the Future and focuses on food quality and hunger impacts. 

Gleaners President John Elliott says residents in the organization’s 21 county service area miss an estimated 53 million meals a year. He says it’s important to look at hunger and its implications in a holistic approach. 

“I think it is up to us to think about solutions the way families think about their challenges or their struggles,” Elliott says. “They’re not dealing with hunger on Monday and homeless on Tuesday in isolation. It’s all together.”  

Indianapolis based Corteva Agriscience, an international publicly traded agriculture company, joined Gleaners at the kickoff event. Corteva gifted $90,000 to the Indiana Produce Co-op to help fund the distribution of fresh produce to Gleaners’ service areas.

By 2023, Gleaners aims to distribute more than 100 million pounds of food annually, provide a variety of healthy foods, reduce the cost per meal from 24¢ to 13¢ and assist people who are ready to move to a place of food security.