HANCOCK COUNTY — With her three kids buckled in the back seat, Amy Doughtie steered her red truck up to the curb of the Boys & Girls Clubs last week to pick up some food.
Although her kids aren’t members of the club, she heard the local organization was giving away packaged meals and snacks to kids 18 and under.
“It’s a nice thing to do because it really helps families out,” said Doughtie, who lost her home day-care job after the pandemic hit central Indiana in mid-March.
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Community food giveaways like this are a great way for families to get some much-appreciated support, she said.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Hancock County is one of many local organizations that have been helping feed those families who may be struggling, whether through job loss, reduced hours or other circumstances. Many families depend on the food supplied for their kids through school and after-school programs, which ramped up after schools closed in mid-March. The schools alone have distributed tens of thousands of meals since then.
Nonprofits, churches and civic groups have stepped up as well.
ITOWN Church, which recently started broadcasting its Fishers-based services at the Ricks Centre in Greenfield, has twice held drive-thru food giveaways in Greenfield.
The Greenfield Elks Lodge has also provided drive-thru dinners — serving over 1,500 meals on consecutive Saturdays since March 28th.
“Our goal was to help anyone hungry for a hot meal served with a warm, friendly smile,” said Gil Garcia, past exalted ruler at the lodge.
Some patrons have made cash donations, which the Elks used to buy over 600 snacks and drinks for staff at Hancock Regional Hospital, as well as meals for Greenfield firefighters.
“The number one question that was asked was, ‘Can I have an extra meal for my neighbor who can’t get out?’” Garcia said.
Helping neighbors has been key in recent weeks, with individuals taking up the task of looking out for one another.
A Greenfield couple, Tom and Franny Miller, have given away hundreds of pounds of ground beef to anyone in need — passing out one-pound rolls of meat in the parking lot of the building where Tom works.
The gestures are appreciated.
“I think it’s nice the community can come together and help each other out,” said Doughtie, as her 6-year old and 3-year-old twins awaited their snacks last week.
Doughtie spends some of her own time volunteering for Park Chapel Christian Church, checking on fellow members to make sure they’re OK.
In addition to connecting people with food and necessities over the past two months, Park Chapel members have provided a meal for staff at the Greenfield Utilities billing department, while ReaLife Church and ITOWN each brought meals to Greenfield firefighters.
It’s all a matter of seeing a need and filling it.
Alyssa Sturgill, a youth development associate at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hancock County, created the clubs’ weekly food giveaway — which gives out two meals, a snack and milk for each child up to 18 on Friday afternoons.
The club served 60 children in its first two weeks.
“Since schools have done a (food giveaway) program through the week, we thought it would be good to do a giveaway to cover food for the weekends,” Sturgill said.
Club director Chantel Fowler is thankful for the chance to help out.
“We know that this has been difficult for our families, and it has been hard on our staff as well,” she said. “We look at the members that we serve as members of our own families, and it has been difficult to be away from them this long, especially knowing that our families have needed us more now than ever.”
Like many organizations doing giveaways, the Boys & Girls Clubs opted to utilize the food it would have been serving over the past two months if school was in session.
All four Hancock County school systems have been busy distributing pre-ordered food to students during the pandemic, as well.
“It is heartwarming to see how schools have once again stepped up to a challenge without a lot of time to prepare or fanfare,” said David Pfaff, superintendent at Eastern Hancock Schools, which has been distributing an average of 1,100 meals per week.
“We have been providing meals for anyone who requests it. We prepare the meals on Monday and distribute (a week’s worth of meals) in sacks on Monday afternoon,” said Pfaff.
At Mt. Vernon Schools, the food service department has distributed more than 55,000 meals to those 18 years of age or younger since March 31, the week after spring break ended.
“We plan to continue to distribute meals through June 26,” said Maria Bond, the corporation’s director of community relations.
The corporation has also partnered with several community resources to provide additional food to food pantries, including a recent “Pack the Pantries” event for which the district parked a bus in a couple of neighborhoods where food was collected, then delivered to Fortville Christian Church.
At Southern Hancock schools, the food service staff has been providing grab-and-go lunch bags for children each day since April 6 — the day classes were to resume after Spring Break. The district announced this week it is extending the service to June 30.
The bags include lunch and breakfast for the next day, while bags distributed on Fridays include food for the weekend.
The corporation has served food to an average of 400 children per day, regardless of their age or school district.
“As soon as we closed and knew we would be closed for some time, one of our immediate goals was to get a food service program up and running,” said Wes Anderson, Southern Hancock’s director of school and community relations.
“Our food service team has been incredible in managing this need in our community.”
Staff at Greenfield-Central schools have done eight meal-kit giveaways since March 23, giving out over 46,000 breakfasts and lunches, said Amanda Stout, the corporation’s director for food services.
Each kit contains enough meals and snacks for five days.
Food service employees, teachers and administrators have all joined in passing out bags of food, handing them out curbside at various school pickup points in the district as they smile and wave at students.
“We have tailored our meal kits to provide meal components similar to those they receive during the normal school year,” said Stout. “Most contents can be prepped with little to no help from an adult.”
As they do throughout the year, the county food pantry and soup kitchen have been working steadily to curb hunger for as many people as possible.
Since March ,the Hancock County Food Pantry has served more than 1,600 households, totaling more than 5,600 individuals, board member Liz Rusche said.
While the pantry continues its mission of feeding those in need, its food distribution methods have been overhauled due to the pandemic.
Previously, clients were able to come inside the pantry to “shop” for food as a pantry volunteer helped them select items from the shelves.
Now, the pantry distributes food using a drive-through method, where clients receive pre-packed food while waiting outside in their cars. Boxes include non-perishable items as well as frozen meats, fresh vegetables, baked goods and miscellaneous items.
“We basically changed our entire operations process at the pantry in just a couple of days when the virus first arrived. Our board of directors and our many volunteers worked diligently to make sure that we have plenty of food to serve our clients through this new process,” Rusche said.
The same contact-free approach has also been applied at the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen in Greenfield, where volunteers have been serving about 100 meals a day. Those receiving meals cannot come inside, but are handed food through the front door.
Despite the sadness of no longer being able to mingle in the dining room with those they serve, “we have been able to maintain our high standard of meals without interruption,” said the soup kitchen’s director, Jill Ebbert.
“Our volunteer team is drastically reduced due to the advanced age of many of our volunteers, but we are not taking new volunteers at this time for the safety of current volunteers and because of lack of time to do proper training,” said Ebbert.
“We have 30 to 35 volunteers who are coming in on a weekly basis, and thirteen of them are doing multiple shifts.”
Another local nonprofit — Love In the Name of Christ of Greater Hancock County, or Love INC — has had an increase in the amount of callers requesting assistance with food, toiletries and hygiene items since mid-March.
“Our referrals to the churches and the local food pantries have been higher than normal,” said Karla Whisenand, Love INC’s executive director.
Several people have needed help getting paper products and cleaning supplies, which food stamps don’t cover, she said.
Love INC also partners with the Wellspring Center at Brandywine Church, where a drive-through food pantry has been serving the public two days a week since late March.
“Love INC has been promoting the pantry along with asking for donations of non-perishable items from churches and the community, and we’ve coordinated and sent dozens of volunteers from multiple churches to assist with the pantry,” said Whisenand.
As nonprofits and service groups continue addressing local food scarcity behind the scenes, those leading the effort say the community has been phenomenal at donating food and finances.
“The impact of the financial support from our community cannot be overstated,” said Rusche, the food pantry board member. “We have had hundreds of donations via our website as well as our mailbox,” she said.
It seems both those serving and receiving would agree that all the hard effort is worth it.
“Despite the challenges, I feel like this whole situation is really bringing everybody together,” said Doughtie, as she turned to hand a package of snacks to her kids.
