The Gleaners Food Bank project worked to help solve an increasingly serious problem in the State of Indiana – hunger. As Indiana loses high-paying manufacturing jobs, a growing number of Hoosiers are living below the poverty level. Last year, Indiana ranked 7th among all states in the increase in poverty, a frightening statistic. For people living in poverty, paying for food is always difficult and sometimes impossible.
Gleaners Food Bank in Indianapolis is part of the national food bank network. Gleaners gathers food from a number of sources – grocery stores, restaurants, individuals and the government, among other places – and distributes the food to other charitable organizations and directly to the needy in a 20 county area in central, eastern and southern Indiana.
Our WABASH Day team’s project was to pack boxes of food to be distributed to needy senior citizens. Each month Gleaners distributes 4,000 of such boxes. The goal of our group of 22 Wabash people was to pack 400 boxes of food. We exceeded that, packing and loading for distribution a total of 560 boxes, 40% more than our quota. Each box held approximately 37 pounds of food, so we packed more than 20,000 pounds of food for needy seniors.
Our team consisted of 22 Wabash volunteers, including wives, girlfriends and children:
Chris Baker '74
Adam Berry '03
Andrew Bridge '01
Bart Bridge '08
Cathy Bridge
John Bridge '72
Eric Cavanaugh '76
Sean Cavanaugh
Aaron Cook ‘06
Audra Cook
Emily Hamilton
Terry Hamilton '89
Carol Landis
Larry Landis '67
Scott McBride '01
Drew McCoy '05
Fred Miller '76
Adam Mueller '01
Shannon Powell
Evan Wagoner '06
Bob Wright '87
Thomas Wright