Senator-elect Joe Donnelly visited several Indiana cities this weekend to see first hand how the state’s food pantries and charities are helping Hoosier families hurt hard by the Great Recession. I caught up with Donnelly at Gleaners Food Bank. A couple of years ago Gleaners moved from their old warehouse on East 16th Street to a spacious 300,000 square foot facility near the old airport entrance. The new facility helps Gleaners better served local food banks and pantries in twenty-one Central Indiana counties, including the entire Indianapolis metro. Sen-elect Donnelly and I toured the facility with Gleaners President & CEO Cindy Hubert. She told us that demand for Gleaners services us up 23% this year; 46% the past two years. While Gleaners and other food banks and charities across the state received tons of food donations from individuals; the bulk of the food they provide comes from Federal food programs. Hubert showed us an example of a service Gleaners provides called Backsacks where a sack of nutritious takehome food is provided in some 200 schools across Central Indiana where kids are at risk of hunger and malnutrition during the weekend. Many of the food programs provided by Gleaners and other agencies would be affected if the fiscal cliff takes effect. Something Senator-elect Donnelly was very concerned about. We talked about that in our interview. Click the Link Below to Hear/Download our Interview with Senator-elect Donnelly at Gleaners. Runs 3 Minutes ©2012 WTLC/Radio One.
