By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Donations of food coming into Indiana’s food banks is lagging behind last year even as demand for that food is surging, according to Household Food Insecurity in the United States, a report released Nov. 17 by the USDA.

“In 2007, just before the current recession, we were serving 350 families a month,” said Lisa A. Jaworski, CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Indiana in South Bend. “This past August, we served 2,800 families.”

The report, compiled by the USDA’s Economic Research Service, showed that in 2009 some 12.3 percent of Hoosiers were “food insecure.” Being food insecure is defined as a consistent lack of access to a nutritious, well-balanced diet. That number is up from 11.2 percent in 2008 and 10.2 percent in 2007.

Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry in Indianapolis, a network of 11 food banks in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, each of which provides food to several private food pantries in their region, said one of the most disheartening statistics in the report is that nearly one in four children in Indiana is at risk for hunger.

The food banks that comprise Feeding Indiana’s Hungry are the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana in Gary; Food Bank of Northern Indiana, South Bend; Food Finders Food Bank, Lafayette; Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana, Fort Wayne; Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Muncie; Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Indianapolis; Terre Haute Catholic Charities; Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Bloomington; Tri-State Food Bank, Evansville; Dare to Care Food Bank, Louisville, Ky.; and Freestore Foodbank, Cincinnati, Ohio.

“Far too many Hoosiers are food insecure,” said Bryant. “But this data provides strong evidence that the safety net helped many families at risk of hunger in 2009. This was largely due to improvements to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) and other programs in the economic recovery package, and the ongoing support for the emergency food system from the federal government.”

Jaworski said the level of need being seen by the Food Bank of Northern Indiana and other food banks around Indiana is unprecedented.

“Even though the numbers say the recession is coming to an end, the situation we see with the hungry is that the number of families is going to remain high” for some time. Jaworski said it could be a decade before there is a significant reduction in demand at the state’s food banks.

“What we are seeing across the board cannot be seen as merely a maintenance level,” she said.

Last year, Jaworski said official numbers for the Food Bank of Northern Indiana showed 123,700 people received food assistance. “And those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Our best guess is that only about three-quarters of the food pantries we serve gave us complete numbers.”

The total number of people helped last year was probably much higher, said Jaworski, and when 2010 comes to an end, the final tally will “significantly surpass” 2009.

Jaworski said one of the complaints she hears from the public is that families “double dip” for food, visiting more than one food pantry. She explained that families visiting the Food Pantry of Northern Indiana are allowed just one visit per month.

“They receive between 25 and 30 pounds of food and for a family of four, that will last anywhere from three to four days,” said Jaworski.  “What’s a family to do for the rest of the month?”

Bryant said families do visit multiple food banks, but for those families, it’s a matter of keeping food on the table. She said that’s why federal legislators need to help local food banks address the need.

“Despite continued increases in unemployment, federal nutrition and charitable food assistance programs responded to the rising need and prevented more Hoosiers from going hungry,” said Bryant.

Still, she said it’s important that action be taken by Congress on the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Although it passed the Senate in August, it still needs to get through the House of Representatives before it heads to President Barack Obama for his signature.

“This report also confirms that we cannot afford to wait another year before addressing our child hunger crisis,” said Bryant. “When Congress returns to Washington this week, they have a critical opportunity to reduce child hunger by strengthening programs that increase low-income children’s access to healthy meals. Congress must not adjourn without passing the Child Nutrition bill this year.”

Bryant said the increase in food insecurity showing the USDA report mirrors the “Hunger in America 2010” report that was issued by Feeding America this past summer. That report showed the number of people seeking emergency food assistance each through Feed America’s network of food banks had risen 46 percent since 2006.

In 2009, said Bryant, the “Hunger in America 2010: Indiana State Report” showed that the state’s food banks had served more than 700,000 Hoosiers, more than half of them children and seniors. For more information on the USDA report, visit www.era.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity