From Brownstown to Crothersville to Freetown to Medora to Seymour, Little Food Pantries are available for those in need in Jackson County.
Healthy Jackson County maintains a list of the 14 pantry boxes and sheds available locally, and the coalition is giving people a chance to help ensure they stay stocked and clean.
During a recent All-Coalition meeting, Jena Hanks with the Physical Activity and Nutrition Workgroup said the Little Food Pantries are available for adoption for a month at a time.
She already has had a few churches and community groups reach out to help keep them stocked with canned fruits and vegetables, canned meats, pasta, boxed food and toiletries.
“We know that we’ve got something that is a consistent food resource in the community, like some of our larger pantries that are a bit more sustainable as far as an every week or every month need,” Hanks said. “But it is something that can happen those in-between times, and so if you or your organization are wanting to adopt one of those for a month, please reach out and let us know.”
Anyone interested may send an email to [email protected] or [email protected]. Information about the pantries is available online at schneckmed.org/healthy-jackson-county under Improving Nutrition.
HJC also maintains an updated food assistance brochure with information about food pantry programs, 4-H Little Food Pantries, school-based programs, senior citizens and adults with disabilities programs, hot meal programs and government assistance.
Molly Marshall, health and human sciences educator for Purdue Extension Jackson County, said the brochure was updated in mid-August, and if anyone needs a copy, it’s available in English and Spanish and includes a QR code that takes you to the HJC website. To obtain a copy, download it at schneckmed.org/healthy-jackson-county under Improving Nutrition, call 812-358-6101 or email [email protected].
Marshall also provided a recap of the efforts at this year’s Jackson County Fair to stock food pantries around the county.
With Canstruction, vendors with booths at the fair were encouraged to build a structure out of canned goods. From the two participating vendors, 932 cans were collected.
Those went toward the Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer initiative that was led locally by the Jackson County 4-H Goat Club. The week of the fair, people were invited to bring nonperishable food items to a trailer. At the end of the week, it was weighed, and the amount was turned in to Farm Credit Mid-America.
This was a statewide competition at county fairs, and 8,500 pounds of food were collected in Jackson County, good enough for third place and a $1,500 prize for the goat club. The club also received $500 for participating.
“They take the money and buy more canned goods to donate to local pantries, so it’s just a great effort for the kids to get involved and make a difference in the community with community service,” Marshall said.
For 2024, she said she hopes to grow Canstruction.
“If you or your organization have a booth at the fair, please be on the lookout for more information,” she said. “We’re going to get it out a lot earlier so that people can plan because it does take some work on the front end to plan to build a structure.”
Jill Whitaker, rural food access coordinator for HJC and a dietitian at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, updated the coalition on the work of the Feeding the Community Workgroup.
She has been joined by Marshall, Brooklynn Rennekamp and Katelyn Kutemeier in leading weekly Food as Medicine sessions at Jamestown Apartments in Seymour.
The free program teaches people how to prepare simple, healthy meals, ways to be more physically active and more. Each household receives a free meal kit to take home each week to create a simple, healthy meal.
The program started Aug. 24 and will end Oct. 12, and Whitaker said they have averaged between 15 and 20 people each Thursday. Funding was provided by the Schneck Foundation, Duke Energy and the Health Issues and Challenges Grant, and food for the classes was provided by the Food & Growers Association.
“We have had a different recipe each week, trying to emphasize more of our produce,” Whitaker said. “The Food & Growers Association is trying to get as much local food as they can, which has been really great. We’re highlighting the recipe, and then each of the participants gets to take a bag of food home with them with all of the ingredients, which is really cool. They get to see it demonstrated and then make it at home.”
She also praised the staff at Jamestown Apartments and said she enjoyed checking out the complex’s food pantry.
“They just really have a heart for helping feed the community, their residents in particular,” Whitaker said. “It was very organized, and you could tell they put a lot of heart and effort into keeping this up and finding things that they can in helping their residents out.”
Whitaker also said a back-to-school food drive was conducted at Schneck, and more than 300 pounds of food were divided between Blessings in a Backpack and Medora Community Schools’ Reach for a Star after-school program.
“We had a significant amount of individual employees and then departments that signed up to bring specific items,” she said of the drive that ran from Aug. 21 to Sept. 1.
Donations included crackers, pop-top pasta and soup cups, beefsticks, sunflower seeds, granola bars and Ramen noodles. Whitaker said Hanks and nursing students from Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus volunteered their time on delivery day and helped her organize all of the food.
“Overall, this was a successful and encouraging food drive,” Whitaker said. “Very thankful to work for and with some of these different organizations. We get to see the different things that they are doing to help feed the community.”
Finally, Hanks highlighted the efforts of the new 5210 Workgroup. The number refers to daily healthy habits: Five or more servings of fruits and vegetables, two hours or less of recreational screen time, one hour or more of physical activity and zero sugary drinks and more water.
The group discussed implementation of 5210 into physician practices and after-school programs and getting the word out through school nurse liaisons and radio and print marketing.
“It really transcends all different economic statuses, lifestyles,” Hanks said. “There are four easy habits that anybody can work to implement.”
Funding comes from the Jackson County Health Department through public health funding it received. Hanks said she is working with the health department on a billboard that will be seen in the community soon, and a flyer recently was in The Tribune’s Healthy Living section.
“Very exciting things going on with that,” Hanks said.