Hope for the Holidays Food Giveaways Scheduled for Lake and Porter Counties

Hope-for-Holidays-2013-7Holiday Food Giveaways Are Scheduled To Help Those In Need

On Friday, Dec. 6th the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, NIPSCO, and Jelly Pancake House held a special breakfast to raise funds for the Food Bank’s Hope for the Holidays program. All funds raised from the breakfast, including a $20,000 donation from NIPSCO, are being used to provide food for two special holiday food giveaways.

One distribution will take place for Porter County residents on Saturday, Dec. 14th, and the second will take place for Lake County residents on Saturday, Dec. 21st. The food giveaways will feature all the food items necessary for a traditional holiday dinner such as turkey, potatoes, gravy, corn bread, desert mixes, stuffing, and much more. The distribution will be set up like a typical Pantry on the Go food distribution where attendees can pick and choose which items they want.

The Porter County distribution will take place from 9:30am to 12:30pm at the Ivy Tech Community College campus in Valparaiso (3100 Ivy Tech Dr.). The Lake County distribution will take place from 9:30am to 12:30pm at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza, Celebrity Ballroom West, in Merrillville (800 E 81st Ave. Merrillville). The same food items will be given out at both distributions.

The Food Bank asks that only Porter County residents attend the give away at Ivy Tech, and only Lake County residents attend the give away at the Radisson. This is to help ensure that the Food Bank is able to get the most amount of food to the most people in need in each county.

The Food Bank also asks attendees not to begin lining up before 9am. This is a safety precaution as they will be setting up the distributions those mornings and don’t want anyone to get hurt as things are being moved around. They also ask attendees to bring bags or boxes to carry their food, as well as one form of proof of residency in either Lake or Porter Counties (drivers license, state id, utility bill, rent check, etc.).

The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana is located in Gary and supplies food to almost 100 pantries and soup kitchens in Lake and Porter Counties. In addition to distributing food to their member agencies the Food Bank also runs the BackPack, Kid’s Café, Food Rescue and Pantry on the Go programs and offers pantry referrals. Last year the Food Bank distributed over 5.1 million pounds of food, and served over 5,000 individuals a week.