Second Helpings Hits Milestone for Meals Served

A central Indiana food rescue and hunger relief organization reached a milestone of serving more than 100,000 meals in a single month.

Second Helpings collects food from Indianapolis grocery stores, wholesalers and restaurants and delivers hot-meals to more than 90 partnered-social service agencies.

CEO Jennifer Vigran says this allows the agencies to spend resources in other ways.

“It is doing great things for kids after school and helping low-income childcare centers to dedicate their resources not to having to buy food,” Vigran says. “But instead to ensure that they can provide high quality early childhood education for those young children.”

Partner services include Wheeler Mission Ministries, the Julian Center and several Boys and Girls Clubs.

Vigran says Second Helpings services help the Indianapolis community save millions of dollars on food-related costs.

“It’s actually a $5.5 million impact on our community each year,” Vigran says. “That's a $5.5 million food cost savings that not-for-profit organizations and our partners throughout the city don’t have to spend, so the return for our community is really phenomenal.” 

Second Helpings has been in operation for 21 years. Since its establishment, the organization rescued more than 32.8 million pounds of food from their donors.   The organization’s next goal is to increase meal distribution by 25% over a five-year period by connecting with more community leaders and nonprofit organizations.