Holiday Hunger: Mobile food distributions ramp up to meet increasing need

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- Michiana food banks are seeing more families lining up to receive supplemental food assistance.

With Christmas just around the corner, many are using the season of giving to make sure their neighbors have something to eat. Volunteers braved the cold on Friday to distribute food for 250 Michiana households.

A line of cars wrapped the parking lot of the Goodwill on Western Avenue in South Bend, waiting for fresh produce and protein from the Food Bank of Northern Indiana and Saint Joseph Health System.

Since the start of the year, through November, the Food Bank has held 229 mobile food distributions, according to Executive Director Marijo Martinec. That number's been ramped up this year to help meet the growing food assistance needs in the community. The drive-through set-up also offers the recipients discretion and dignity, Martinec said.

Latorya Greene, director of community health and wellbeing and tobacco initiatives at Saint Joseph Health System, was just one of the volunteers braving the cold on Friday to provide households with the food donations.

"Food costs are going up, and you know, wages are kind of stagnant at this point," she said. "We just want to make sure that we have healthy access to healthy foods in our community."

The need this year is greater than the need last year, according to Martinec and other leaders. In fact, every year since the 2020 pandemic, the need for food assistance has risen in St. Joseph County and all of Michiana.

ABC57 Investigative Reporter Annie Kate is digging into just how much the need has gone up and the reasons why. An ABC57 News Investigates special report, "Feeding Michiana: Hungry for the Holidays," will air Monday, Dec. 22, at 5 p.m.