General Info

Food Bank of Northwest Indiana was founded in 1982. It was originally a barn, but has grown into a facility that acquires, stores and distributes 3.5 million pounds of food throughout Lake and Porter Counties. It is a USDA approved, primary distributor of food to local pantries, shelters, day care centers, and soup kitchens. Food Bank is an affiliate of Feeding America, the nation's largest food bank network. For more than three decades, Food Bank has served as a link for food relief to families, the elderly, children and other individuals. But, the vision of Food Bank expands beyond providing assistance for this basic need to include a number of initiatives. We are developing space for community resource services such as nutrition education, job training, WIC and SNAP programming. We are also increasing the total amount and nutritional value of the food and grocery products we distribute each year. Food Bank is training and equipping community agencies to engage in aggressive referral programs that will link individuals to support services that will address underlying causes of hunger such as unemployment, underemployment, lack of education and transportation. We provide and promote programs and services that will help educate and empower individuals to make healthy eating choices for themselves and their families. Finally, we are focused on improving the quality and level of service provided by each community agency in the Food Bank's network. Food Bank of Northwest Indiana strives to reduce the impact of hunger through programs of advocacy, nutrition education and faith based partnerships. Food Bank of Northwest Indiana's mission is to provide nutritional support to those in need of hunger relief through its network of 100 community agencies across Lake and Porter Countieswith the ongoing focus of ending hunger and helping individuals in our community move towards self-sufficiency.