Results: We distributed 17,838,760 pounds last year alone!
Target demographics: food insecure families, individuals, children, seniors, and veterans
Direct beneficiaries per year: 80,000 children, families, individuals, seniors, and veterans
Geographic areas served: Northeast Indiana
Programs: Member agencies: community harvest food bank (chfb) partners with nearly 400 member nonprofit agencies across northeast indiana, including homeless shelters, food pantries, soup kitchens, and youth organizations. These nonprofit agencies receive a large portion of their food from the chfb facility, which is then distributed to their clients locally. Our strong community partnerships with these organizations allow us to increase food distribution to additional rural and urban areas, especially those that fall outside the city of fort wayne.
community cupboard: community cupboard is a uniquely designed pantry where families struggling with hunger select groceries at no cost to them. Staff and volunteers are dedicated to treating all clients with dignity and respect, while responding to questions or requests for assistance. Families make selections from a wide assortment of available produce, protein, dairy, and shelf stable food items. The hope for heroes program began in 2016 to provide food assistance at no cost to veterans and military families experiencing hardship through transition. Families are eligible to receive 100 pounds of food each month for six months in the community cupboard pantry, enough to fill a large grocery cart.
farm wagon: farm wagon provides fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and sandwich bread to clients throughout all nine counties in our service region. Refrigerated trucks visit 82 locations per month to distribute fresh foods to individuals and families in identified food deserts, both rural and urban. The farm wagon mobile pantry is a key program focusing our efforts to provide fresh, nutrient dense foods to clients who do not have affordable access to such items.
other programs: seniorpak provides groceries twice per month at no cost to low income older adults in northeast indiana. Seniors who are medically homebound receive groceries delivered to their homes by volunteers, while seniors who are mobile visit the chfb facility to receive food every other wednesday. Many senior citizens are forced to make tough choices, such as whether to buy groceries or other necessities like prescription medication. Seniorpak provides balanced foods to promote better overall health and quality of life among vulnerable older adults. Kids backpack/teenpak programs provide a ten-pound bag of shelf stable food to children and teens up to age 18 every weekend year-round. Teachers and guidance staff refer disadvantaged and at-risk youth to the program. While kids and teens have school lunches and other meal programs available during the week, these can often be the only meals they can count on. Backpack/teenpak provides a healthy food resource for these children to count on during the weekend when other programs are unavailable. Each bag contains protein, fruits, vegetables, snacks, juice, and soups to provide balanced nutrition to each recipient, plus a hungry sibling. Kids caf and summer feeding programs provide after school and summer meals to children without reliable access to meals. Through the usda and state of indiana, chfb provides food to designated feeding sites, such as parks and recreation, and youth activity centers. Volunteers prepare meals for children in attendance, and site staff provide enrichment activities, such as educational or outdoor activities. These programs blend nicely with kids backpack/teenpak as, combined, they ensure that children are fed every day of the week. Saturday helping hands provides groceries to families each week from 9-11 a. M. , including foods such as produce, dairy, bread and bakery, and other available items. Volunteers and staff serve all who attend, often hundreds of families per week (average of 700). Chfb participates in the following usda and state of indiana programs: the emergency food assistance program (tefap), commodity supplemental food program (csfp), child and adult care food program (cacfp), and summer food service program (sfsp).
