skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Indiana Food Banks Preparing to Upgrade, Expand

play audio
Play

Friday, June 18, 2021   

INDIANAPOLIS -- Food banks across Indiana are prepping to make good use of a million dollars in funding over the next fiscal year; money that starts rolling in by mid-July.

The Legislature increased funding from $300,000 per year, after hunger shot through the roof during the pandemic.

Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana's Hungry, said millions of people nationwide are still struggling.

"We know for the month of April that the need and the pounds being distributed was about 45% above what an average month would have been in 2019," Weikert Bryant recounted. "So we're still seeing above-average demand. We're still helping folks who are still working to make ends meet."

Weikert Bryant recalled during the lockdowns, cars snaked around the block at many food banks as people picked up pre-boxed food. And many food banks had to rent cold storage to keep perishable donations safe, and even buy food outright to meet the demand.

Jennifer Buell, assistant agency director for Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank, said they saw a 16% increase in clientele in 2020, compared with the year before. And they estimate 25% of the children within their service area are food insecure, day after day.

"That's over and over and over again," Buell emphasized. "And for children, that's affecting both their physical and their cognitive development. And those delays that you see in childhood because of food insecurity can actually last an entire lifetime."

Advocates contended the increased funding will help food banks modernize and expand their facilities, so they can continue to combat hunger in the state.

Disclosure: Feeding Indiana’s Hungry contributes to our fund for reporting on Hunger/Food/Nutrition. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021