the BEACON Newspaper, Indiana Sept 2017 Beacon | Page 4

Page 4
THE BEACON
September 2017
Community Support Reaches All Corners of Our Pantries
Continued from Page 1
and social condition of limited
or uncertain access to ad-
equate food’.
Anne Baran, the Batesville
Food Pantry Co-Coordinator,
says,” It’s true that November
and December are always
the busiest months … I think
that people who don’t nor-
mally need help, we have a
lot of people who only come
when they absolutely have to,
but during those months the
utilities, expenses are greater;
they’re trying to buy things
for their kids for the holidays
and families expect some
kind of special treat - like a
big dinner or something, and
that’s a big expense.
“But we hope that people
continue being generous be-
cause that’s what we depend
on in order to be sure that
people don’t go hungry. We
need to have enough food -
and we’ve been very fortunate
thus far – but during the holi-
days we see the most generos-
ity. After Christmas it’s like
someone turns off the tap, so
we do need to remind people
that the need still exists.”
A number of local churches
and organizations provide free
lunches and snacks to children
during the summer, and many
students are provided with
a bag of food to take home
over the weekends or dur-
ing breaks during the school
year, but that wasn’t always
Executive Director Karry Hollan looks over the just-filled
shelves of canned goods at the Dearborn County
Clearinghouse in Aurora. Once-a-month shoppers are invited to use a cart to choose
a limited number of items from available foods at the
Clearinghouse.
the case, according to Karry
Hollan, Executive Direc-
tor of the Dearborn County
Clearinghouse in Aurora. She
shares the history of Sacks of
Snacks: “It started out when
the principals came to me and
said there were some kids
who weren’t going to have
anything to eat over the holi-
days, so I called some other
agencies and we got a lot of
stuff for them so they would
have something to eat.
“The schools said that this
was a continuing problem so
we started getting some help
… and it’s just been a wonder-
ful program for the kids. We do
a survey at the end of the year
and some of the comments
were really cute, but some
were kind of sad; some of them
said they wouldn’t have any- asks Ms. Hollan.
She continues, “It’s not that
people are trying to live off
society, it’s that they are try-
ing to exist.”
One contributing factor that
cannot be overlooked is the
current opioid emergency. As
more and more families are be-
ing impacted by this very hu-
man crisis, friends and relatives
are finding it difficult to feed
and take care of their growing
households. Ms. Hollan says,
“We see a lot of grandparents
and aunts and uncles who have
their grandchildren and nieces
and nephews. This is some-
thing they hadn’t expected at
this point in their lives; having
to raise them. They need bed-
ding, clothes – they just were
not prepared for all of this and
we’re seeing a lot of it.”
Individuals can offer their
support by sharing their time;
the surplus from their gardens;
by participating in seasonal and
ongoing fund raisers and food
drives – and through monetary
donations. Food pantries won’t
turn away non-perishable foods
like breakfast cereals, pancake
mixes, pop-top soup and stews,
canned vegetables and tuna
Ridgewood Health Campus invites you to our 6 th Annual
Car Show
5 th
August
thing to eat over the weekend
if it wasn’t for the Sacks of
Snacks. And really it’s not that
big: it’s like a little grocery bag
with Ramen noodles, a cup of
fruit, and a goodie. It’s not re-
ally a whole lot, but it’s enough
to keep them sustained for the
weekend.”
Food insecurity can be
difficult to identify – hunger
doesn’t have a certain age,
gender or look and it recog-
nizes no boundaries; it is not
limited to any one population,
location or socioeconomic
group. Often people are reti-
cent about asking for help, so
they simply make-due for as
long as they can. According
to the Gleaners website, 57%
of clients have at least one
job, and every one out of five
clients has served or currently
is serving in the military.
“We have subsidized hous-
ing here, but we don’t have
enough of it so people are
stuck juggling the rent; people
with children with special
needs have medical costs, but
still have to pay their bills, so
they rob Peter to pay Paul and
things just begin to esca