I can’t think of any non-profit organization that isn’t in full blown “attention to detail” mode at this moment. At Second Harvest, we are quickly moving toward the completion of our 2019 budget and our internal planning discussions are turning to the first quarter focus. Don’t get me wrong, we still have a lot of tasks to complete to finish off 2018 as planned, but, those plans were made many months ago.
This month alone, we have many thanks that go out for the effort put forth to make a difference for thousands of struggling families we reach all year long.
- We had a great, sunny day on October 1st for our 8th annual ACC Fall Classic Golf Outing. Our sincere thanks go to the leadership and all the supporters from Ultra Steak (aka, Texas Roadhouse).
- On Saturday, October 6th, we held our 4th annual Hot Rods for Hunger event at the Muncie Mall, where we had over 180 cars and 6 motorcycles on display. We even had someone from Ohio come to display their car. We want to offer special thanks to Mutual Bank as our Presenting Sponsor and to Muncie Mall for their partnership in hosting this event, again this year.
- On Saturday, October 13th, we were in Elwood with our friends from Red Gold, participating in the 7th Annual Run to Crush Hunger and 33rd Chili Cook-Off. Red Gold outdid themselves again this year and had a record attendance of over 1,400 registered participants for the 10K, 5K and 1 mile events. I would say the Second Harvest team finished strong, but let’s just say we finished without injury. The Chili Cook-Off was executed flawlessly and it had to be a record attendance as well.
- Monday, October 15th, we participated at the Hoosier Park Fall Fair to showcase our program work in Madison County.
- Tuesday, October 16th we had our School Pantry Program at 3 schools in Madison, Delaware and Randolph counties.
- Wednesday, October 17th we were at 3 more schools also in Delaware, Henry and Wabash counties and held a Tailgate in Jay County.
- Thursday, October 18th at 2 more school pantries in Henry and Delaware counties and hosting our Forward S.T.E.P.S. evening meetings and meal for approximately 60 attendees.
- Friday, October 19th in Randolph and Henry County with the Tailgate Program.
All that said, we still delivered tens of thousands of pounds of food to our 115 agency program partners in all 8 counties.
The time has also come to celebrate opportunities and voice concerns so we can address the needs of as many in the community as we can reach now and in the future. So on Tuesday, October 23rd, I will be making some comments at a press conference hosted by Midwest Food Bank in Indianapolis. Here we will announce the launch of Food Drop as a statewide initiative. This effort will make it much easier for trucking companies to contact any participating food bank to drop partial or full truckloads of food they need to off load anytime 24/7, so that the driver can keep going to the next stop. We anticipate this to be a new source of donated food or at least be a more convenient system for logistical companies.
Wednesday, October 23rd, we will be hosting a breakout session during the 3rd Annual Local Food Summit for Muncie and East Central Indiana hosted at the Ball State Alumni Center. This event is another way for anyone and everyone to get involved in the local and regional food system, cutting-edge innovations from food and farming entrepreneurs to help shape our local food landscape through policy, planning and action (as the electronic invitation indicates).
Wrapping up October, we will host our 3rd Do Good Date Night at our Second Harvest facility on Friday, October 26th. Come by yourself, with a date or in a group of friends for only $15 per ticket! Harmony Café will be catering the meal, there will be a cash bar, and lots of fun activities in our community room. Valuable information will be given about what we are doing in our communities and how you can be a part of making it happen. For tickets, visit Eventbright.com – DoGoodDateNight. We are always looking for people/organization/businesses who want to partner with us in any of these impactful ways to lift up the community.
Tim Kean is the President and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. The Second Harvest Food Bank network of 115-member agencies, programs and 23 schools provide food assistance and long term stability skills to more than 67,000 low-income people facing hunger in Blackford, Delaware, Grant, Henry, Jay, Madison, Randolph and Wabash Counties.