By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Kosciusko County’s Health First Indiana agreed in September to provide $10,000 for a new program that helps address food insecurity, and the timing could not be better.
The Kosciusko Food Security Coalition leveraged $10,000 of Health First Indiana money to provide nearly seven thousand pounds of high-quality protein to families in need, said a news release from HFI.
That money was used to help provide 6,7000 pounds of ground pork that was then sent to the Milford Food Bank where it was distributed to 38 partners organizations, including food pantries, recovery homes and churches with community meal programs.
It was a cooperative effort coordinated by Live Well Kociusko and the food insecurity coalition and benefited 3,300 families at a time when many low-income families faced a temporary loss of food stamps while also dealing with rising grocery prices, said Liz McCullough, coordinator for HFI.
HFI described the arrangement in a news release as a major victory for local food security efforts.
The money will be used as part of the food coalition’s “Meating the Need” program that provides high-quality protein to those in need.
“This one is a brand new program and … for the first year of doing it, I thought it was pretty amazing,” McCullough told News Now Warsaw.
She said she hopes HFI can help provide more money to the program next year.
She participated in a group call this week with people involved in working to offset food insecurity that focused in part on the future needs.
“All the prices of everything are increasing … and they said the need is not going to go away anytime soon,” she said.
