By EMMA HOPKINS-O’BRIEN

Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Sept. 12 was Hunger Action Day, and to celebrate, Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana hosted a press conference on Monument Circle to announce their new strategic plan and accept a gift of $90,000 from Corteva Agriscience to implement the plan.

President and CEO of Gleaners, John Elliot, said the new strategic plan calls for the distribution of 100 million pounds of food annually, 2.5 times the current amount.

“As community leaders, we can, and we must resolve the interconnected challenges that are simultaneously faced by the families that we serve,” Elliot said. “Especially that urgent convergence of hunger and health.”

He called the 40 percent food waste rate and 15 percent food insecurity in the country “a supply chain opportunity”. By 2023, Gleaners plans on 80 percent of the food it distributes to be fresh produce, lean proteins, low-fat dairy and whole grains. These goals may sound insurmountable, but Gleaners already has a record of beating seemingly impossible goals.

“In 2016, we provided 2 and a half meals with every dollar donated,” Elliot said. “Through significant investments in efficiency and hard work by the operations team and others — we now do four meals with every dollar that’s shared with us. That’s a 60 percent efficiency improvement in two years.”

In 2023, the food bank plans to lower the cost of one of their meals further —to 13 cents. Currently, Gleaners manages a regional co-op that now distributes 14 million pounds of food across nine states in collaboration with other foodbanks. Corteva pledged its $90,000 gift in support of expanding that co-op. Corteva’s senior vice president of enterprise operations, Susan Lewis, said the organization’s passion is enabling producers in the 140 countries Corteva in which it does business.

“It’s enriching the lives of those who produce — farmers and ranchers—all of the folks involved in producing — and the consumers and ensuring progress for generations to come that we are passionate about,” she said. “We know you can’t get generations unless you are working continuously on making sure people have food security today, and more employees can get behind that.”

Corteva is involved in more than 50 charitable organizations just in Indianapolis, but it also participates with foodbanks all over the country, including Johnson, Iowa, Williamton, Delaware, Michigan, Georgia, and other places. Its donation to Gleaners should supply 1.1 million pounds of produce the region’s hungry.

“We are so delighted to lead this challenge gift and that we support the expansion of the Indiana produce co-op,” Lewis said.

A company used to grand challenges in line with feeding the growing population, she said Corteva  also wants to make a difference now.

“We have all these things to do, but how can we make an impact today?” Lewis said. “Actually being able to do it today means we’re actually able to provide tomatoes today — we’re growing tomatoes in the season, we’re growing corn and soybeans which are high in protein, we’re growing many other fruits and vegetables in our gardens and being able to supply them right away — the day they are ready to harvest.”

Elliot noted that building local strategies by county, becoming a trusted and caring poverty-relief partner and assisting those who are ready to move to a place of food-security for themselves and their families also factors into their new strategic plan.

“In fiscal 2018, we distributed 28 million meals, up eight percent, but that still only got us to 42.7 percent of that food gap,” Elliot said. “Which means we haven’t done half our work yet. In fact, statewide, the missed meals are still 158 million per year. That’s not acceptable, and that is the reason for today’s call for action. Hunger Action Day is an event in the future I hope we don’t need to have. But we’re not there yet.”

For the sake of their community, Lewis said Corteva employees understand that food security can touch close to home, which is why they are so passionate about this partnership.

“We exist within our communities — we live, work and play and build together in our communities, and we know food is the most basic human need, and really the engine of light and a true prerequisite of progress,” Lewis said.