Stepping up Our Game

Every month, hundreds of people shop from Feeding Team pantries around Hamilton County and Central Indiana. Non-perishable meals will always be our primary mission. When we began this ministry in 2019, we never imagined what it would become. Now as we begin a new chapter that we never thought possible, we are humbled to bring new ways to address neighbors’ food insecurity here in our special part of Indiana. 

We are excited to share some Feeding Team updates as we step up our game in response to wildly increased demand at the pantries. By the time you read this month’s column, the 78^th pantry will be in service. The intensity of pantry use continues to amaze us with neighbors shopping from pantries at all hours of the day and night. Dozens of families every week shop from and donate to the pantries. The hard realization we’ve come to over the past six years is that we can’t solve our neighbors’ hunger challenges, rather, we can make a dent in remedying the problem.

As a new program, The Feeding Team now offers open pantry pick-up including perishable food on the first and third Thursdays of the month at our offices at 485 Sheridan Road in Noblesville from 10-12. This allows families to pick up normal stock that is in pantries plus veggies and perishables when available. On the first day, six families stopped by the office for the new pick-up service.

As our second new program, last Saturday in partnership with Gleaners Food Bank, The Feeding Team launched the return of the drive-through food pickup in Northern Hamilton County for our area neighbors. This food distribution is planned to continue, weather permitting, every 2^nd Saturday morning of each month from 10-12 at Hamilton Heights High School 25802 IN State Road 19, Arcadia, IN 46030, and every 4^th Tuesday afternoon of the month from 4-6 PM beginning July 22^nd, at Harbour Shores Church, 8011 E. 216^th Street in Cicero. This is a big step for us and is one of our attempts to address a tremendous need.

With these new food distribution channels, we hope that this will also adjust the level of food maintained in pantries leaving more for other hungry neighbors who can’t take advantage of these new options.

Our plan is simple. Provide as many meals as we can, for people in need, and recruit enough volunteers to make that possible. Yes, we need your help. We’ve made volunteering easy and with so many opportunities it’s simple to plug into serving local neighbors. Saturday the combined group of volunteers from The Feeding Team, the Noblesville Lions and the Westfield Lions provided meals to almost 200 families as they drove through the food pick-up line.

One of the leading indicators for Feeding Team pantry locations is proximity to families living in areas with larger use of free or reduced meals in schools. Gap families, those that have enough to get by, unless and until something unexpectedly happens, may or may not be receiving meal assistance for their children at school. Knowing this data, we respond with programming to fill this new hunger gap in our communities.

If you want to help, please send an email to lisa@feedingteam.org, call our office, or message us on Facebook to get details and signup. We share our experiences to share moments of helping with you, our supporters. Without you, this doesn’t happen.

Imagine the moment for a second, the joy of helping a neighbor who can’t make ends meet. Many of us have been there. Many are still there. Many will be there in the future. That is why we exist. It’s not often that we have encounters like this one. It happens more than you’d think, more than we’d like, and while we know that hunger and poverty will never go away, we can make a dent in it. Together we can help feed hungry neighbors here in our communities.

With over 44,000 food challenged neighbors in Hamilton County, www.Feedingteam.org is a registered 501C3 not for profit organization that provides outdoor 24x7x365 no questions asked free food pantries throughout the county. The pantries exist, to meet the food insecurity needs of GAP families, neighbors that may not qualify for public assistance and could use a few meals before payday. The pantries serve as many food-challenged neighbors as possible, and our hearts are with those that, like my family, could not always make ends meet.

Thank you for supporting the pantries. We love serving with so many neighbors across Hamilton County. In future columns we will share more stories about how your generosity served neighbors in times of need. The face of hunger in Hamilton County is not what you may think.

In practical terms this straightforward way to help neighbors is having a real impact on lives, families, and our communities. Thank you. A few meals can change the course of a person’s life. A can of green beans means so much more when you have nothing to feed your kids. Would you like to get involved? Volunteer opportunities are available. We are evaluating new pantry locations. If you think you have a potential area location, please contact us.

www.feedingteam.org facts – 78 pantries, 14,000 meals a month are provided, over thirty volunteer families. Mark & Lisa Hall are the Founders of The Feeding Team. They may be reached at lisa@feedingteam.org and mark@feedingteam.org or 317-832-1123.

Mark Hall is a Hamilton County Councilman and the Founder and CEO of TLX, Talent Logistix. Feeding Families outdoor Free Food pantries is the corporate charity of his company. Mark and his wife Lisa founded the food charity program the team after living with food insecurity as a young married couple with kids.