By Tom Spalding, Communications Volunteer
Boulevard Place Food Pantry serves clients who live exclusively in zip codes 46205, 46208, 46220, 46240 and 42620, although we do serve walk-ins (one time) who are unaware of the residency requirement.
Typically, we’ll then help these individuals or families find the food bank closest to them—or a hot meal.
Solving the food insecurity challenge isn’t a competition. In Indianapolis, it’s a collaboration.
This is why Boulevard Place Food Pantry’s Bob White and Tom Spalding attended the Indianapolis Business Journal’s 8th Health & Hunger Breakfast featuring Gleaners’ CEO Fred Glass and an all-star corporate panel (the Colts’ Steve Campbell, the Pacers’ Corey Wilson, Kroger’s Eric Halvorson and Corteva’s Heidi Spahn). It’s why members of our team are attending the Indy Hunger Network’s Hunger Summit at St. Luke (the biggest event of the year for food pantry leaders in Central Indiana) this month and—unrelated—the Indiana Hunger Summit at Indiana State Fairgrounds.
“The three most important considerations we always keep top of mind is our zip code service boundaries, our hours of operation, and our mission statement, which we recently reinforced internally and externally via our new apparel,” says Matt Hayes, pantry co-director. “It says so on our headwear and our aprons—support, serve, volunteer.”
We have our heart out to our clients in the giving spirit of St Vincent de Paul, but we also need have an eye out for what’s happening around us, says White, pantry co-director. It’s why we have our own locally focused service area but we pay attention to what’s happening around Marion County and nationally, as events can impact the supply chain of food available for purchase.
As Gleaners (via Fred Glass) pointed out at the IBJ breakfast:
- * 1 in 7 Americans (47 million) live in food insecure households
- Challenges of the hungry are also universal:
- High rent
- Expensive groceries
- Comparatively low wages
Moving forward, the goals of the Indiana Hunger Summit are ones we wanted to directly share:
RAISE AWARENESS of Indiana’s poverty, hunger and food insecurity challenges leading to outlining actionable strategies to close key gaps
FOSTER COLLABORATION to unite groups, food producers and food chain stakeholders to create unified statewide approach
SHOWCASE INNOVATION that highlights innovations, sparks collaboration and forges impactful partnerships to drive solutions
At Boulevard Place, we’re aligned to that three-tiered philosophy.
Our mission can always be helped out: Give now.
