ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: Stepping up to feed the hungry

<p>Ever since the pandemic turned life upside down, many have stepped up to help fill a growing need to feed the hungry in this community.</p><p>Some of these local efforts have been featured in The Tribune. Among them is Cultivate Food Rescue, which repurposes unserved food for the needy. Before the pandemic, the nonprofit rescued about 30,000 pounds of food a month. But with Cultivate’s suppliers — including caterers, schools and restaurants — needing to empty their refrigerators and freezers, the South Bend nonproft is rescuing 100,000 pounds monthly.</p><p>Last year through mid-December, Cultivate had rescued more than 756,000 pounds, about 73% of its four-year total of 1.28 million pounds.</p><p>Other worthy undertakings include area schools that have found ways to provide food to students, many of whom were dependent on these meals pre-pandemic. They’re also filling additional needs for families that are struggling due to a parent’s job loss. At Holy Cross School in South Bend, school counselor Debbie Hudak led an effort to ensure that any family that needed lunches would get them. A federal grant allowed several local Catholic Diocese schools to help families, and volunteers helped distribute the food.</p><p>The initial plan to run the program from March, when Holy Cross went virtual, to June, when school ended, changed as the need grew. “We started with 50 meals and ended with 175 meals that we were distributing,” Hudak noted in a Tribune column by Howard Dukes. “There were even people on bikes, people would push shopping carts, and sometimes the neighbors and people would bring other community people that were in need and we would help them.”</p><p>Marijo Martinec, executive director and CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Indiana, is struck by the generous response by members of the commmunity to “the tremendous amount of need.”</p><p>That need has exploded over the last 10 months: The organization, which serves Elkhart, LaPorte, Kosciusko, Marshall, Starke and St. Joseph counties, distributed 11.9 million pounds of food last year from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 — a record. They also conducted 210 mobile food pantries for an 847% increase in the number of mobile distributions over 2019. And thanks to assistance from National Guard members, although they had a decrease in the number of volunteers, they saw an increase in the number of volunteer hours.</p><p>Martinec is concerned about the coming months, with projections for an increasing need through 2021. But she’s also “buoyed” by those who give — like the 10-year-old girl who, along with her younger brother, made a $30 donation — then recruited her parents and grandparents to make their own donations.</p><p>She calls it the sort of thing that “kind of keeps you going.”</p><p>It’s also the response of a generous and caring community — and a bright spot in bleak times.</p><p><em>Send comments to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</em></p>