Hoosier Hills Food Bank Announces Nineteen Heroes of the COVID-19 Crisis

Hunger Action Awards 2020 – Nineteen Heroes of the Covid-19 Crisis
 
Sadly, another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic is HHFB’s 14th Annual Hunger Action Awards Reception, which had been scheduled for June 15th at the IMU Tudor Room.
 
Despite not being able to hold the ceremony, we think it’s more important than ever to recognize our Hunger Heroes – specifically those who have stepped up during the crisis.  We took a different approach this year, naming “19 Heroes of the Covid-19 Crisis” – these honorees are only a representative sample of the many, many volunteers, food donors, financial donors, government agencies, businesses and institutions that helped make our response to the pandemic possible.

Click "Read More" for the full list of "heroes."

They are listed as 19 honorees symbolically, but in no particular order:

1. Indiana National Guard – providing over 2,000 hours of service so far, Guard members have been a lifeline for HHFB.  They’ve replaced our normal volunteer base and packed thousands of bags and boxes of food, staged hundreds of pallets, cleaned and sanitized our facilities and handed out food to thousands of clients.
2. Penske – Early on Penske stepped forward with the delivery of two semi-trailers that they made available to us for additional storage at no cost.  They’ve helped us move supplies out of our two warehouses to enable the storage of incoming purchased food and the set up areas necessary to box and bag food.
3. Rachel Lane and Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.  Rachel is HHFB’s newest friend and hero.  Charged with being a liaison to emergency food providers and helping coordinate the state’s response, she has been a tireless advocate for food banks and food pantries across the state.
4. Jon Barada and Bloomington Health Foundation.  Jon accepted the challenge to chair the community task force dedicated to food security and has dedicated enormous effort to helping identify needs and resources.  He’s been a chief cheerleader and provided encouragement and coordination to facilitate our needs and our collaborative efforts.
5. Efrat Feferman and United Way of Monroe County.  Efrat and UWMC have coordinated much of the community’s financial response to the crisis, working through several stages of grantmaking to ensure that important community needs were met…including rapid approval of grants to HHFB for food purchasing that allowed us to start ordering food early in the game.
6. Monroe County Commissioners.  The first government agency to respond to our call for funding food purchases – within 24 hours a commitment was made that combined with support from United Way allowed us to place food orders right away as the food supply chain was starting to be challenged.
7. Chuck Burns.  One of 8 regular volunteers who maintained their shifts during the crisis, sorting food, cleaning, organizing and helping in the warehouse.
8. Elisabeth Heyerdahl.  Another of the regulars who continued her weekly shifts during the crisis, helping in the warehouse and sanitizing our frequently touched locations on a regular basis.
9. John & Linda Harl.  Long-time regular volunteers who continued their weekly (sometimes semi-weekly!) shifts both sorting books and helping in the warehouse.
10. Mike & Barb Horvath.  Two more key regular volunteers who continued their shifts at the warehouse helping in all sorts of ways throughout the crisis.
11. Joan ten Hoor.  A “Better Books” volunteer who continued her shifts through the crisis, coming in regularly to evaluate and price the more expensive and desirable books for our sale.
12. Bob Fuller.  Another key “Better Books” volunteer who maintained his shifts during Covid, evaluating and pricing books that bring higher prices at our sale.
13. Catalent.  One of the first corporate and employee donors who helped jump start our food purchasing program with generous donations from the company and staff.
14. College Mall.  Simon Properties reached out to ask how they could help and swiftly agreed to host our large scale food distribution, providing support and encouragement at each step.
15. Garrard Chapel. This Owen County agency has distributed 219% more food during the Covid crisis than during the same period last year.
16. Pantry 279.  The Ellettsville pantry is finding new ways to deliver food to those in need and has distributed 163% more food during Covid-19 than the same period last year.
17. Paoli Community Food Pantry.  This Orange County agency was already headed toward a 2020 Hunger Action Award for it’s dedication during 2019, but during the Covid period it has increased its distribution of HHFB food by 85%.
18. Mary Blizzard.  Planned as an honoree for the 2020 awards as a result of her leadership of the College Square Food Pantry, Mary’s determination to keep the pantry going during the Covid crisis has been formidable.
19. Summers Plumbing.  Already another planned honoree for their 2019 food drive, Summers has also conducted a food drive during Covid and delivered hundreds of pounds.

 
Leadership Awards
In some years we have also recognized internal achievements of our staff members and board volunteers.  We are honoring two such team members with Leadership Awards in 2020.

• Brandon Bartley.  Our Manager of Food Sourcing and Food Policy has demonstrated strong skills and dedication during the Covid period.  He’s worked beyond his normal duties to create a calendar and plan for scheduling agency distribution appointments; worked with operations staff to implement pre-staging of food; stepped up to fill development voids by designing flyers, ads and other materials and produced reports and statistics necessary to keep track of our Covid food needs and purchasing.
• Jessica McClellan.  Our Treasurer has been a steady presence during a period when we have not been able to hold meetings or have board members in the food bank.  She has regularly continued to fulfill her duties, meeting with the CEO bi-weekly to sign checks and payroll reports and to review financial reports and discuss our current status.  She has also been regularly available for consultation with the CEO and Board President on financial matters.