CHAPTER 4
Indianapolis, Indiana: Hoosier Pie
The Indianapolis story illustrates how local leaders are working to build
a broader coalition of stakeholders fighting hunger in their communities by
raising public awareness—not only of the problem, but also the solutions.
People who fight hunger at the local level have a gut feeling
that the United States would be a hungry country indeed without
SNAP and other nutrition programs. In Indianapolis, Dave
Miner, chair of the Indy Hunger Network (IHN) and former
Indianapolis
board chair of Bread for the World, wanted something more than
a gut feeling when he talked with people in the community. His
wife Robin collected information on all the major sources of food
assistance in Indianapolis. Data were readily accessible. Federal
nutrition program data were available from the state agencies
that administer them. Figuring out the rest required some phone
calls and emails to private charities, but this didn’t prove difficult either.
By crunching the numbers, the Miners discovered that federal nutrition programs accounted for more than 90 percent of the food assistance
in Indianapolis in 2012. SNAP’s contribution alone was 73 percent. The largest contributor
on the private sector side was Gleaners, the Indianapolis area food bank that is the face of
hunger relief for many Indy residents. Gleaners represented 4 percent. See Figure 4.2.
Robin developed a simple pie chart so that anyone can visualize where Indianapolis’ food
assistance comes from. When they show it to the people they hope will support IHN’s work,
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%
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