Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana released our 2024 Impact Report, highlighting the continued rise in need as neighbors struggled to make ends meet due to inflation, rent increases and stagnant wages. Since Gleaners was first founded in a three-car garage in 1980, we have remained committed to our mission of fighting hunger by engaging individuals and communities to provide food for people facing hunger.
2024 continued the troubling pattern of rising hunger in our state. As the largest food bank in Indiana, we have a responsibility to meet that need. This year, Gleaners and Fresh Connect Central distributed more than 97 million meals. We worked to be a leader in the fight against hunger with 125 employees and 13,676 volunteers throughout our network.
Here are some key takeaways from this year’s report.
Hoosiers face hunger at higher levels than in 2023.
The beginning of 2024 marked a sobering start of the year for Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana. January 2024 was a record-breaking month for Gleaners: We served more than 27,000 households in our drive-thru pantry onsite.
1 in 8 Hoosiers living in our 21-county service area were food insecure in 2024, or about 12.6%. Unfortunately, that’s a marked uptick from 2023, when 9.6% of people were food insecure. Meanwhile, the child food insecurity rate also jumped from 12% in 2023 to 17.2%, and there were 98,940 food insecure children in our 21 service counties in 2024. This concerning rise mirrors statewide trends. Across Indiana, 950,220, or 1 in 7 people, face hunger according to Feeding America.
Faith-based organizations provide crucial access points for community.
An estimated 35,018,640 meals were distributed by Gleaners network partners in 2024. A vast majority of those meals, around 76%, were distributed by faith-based organizations.
Neighbors accessed fresh produce and healthy food through Gleaners.
Throughout the course of 2024, the combined efforts Gleaners and hardworking partner pantries provided 47,730,995 meals of fresh fruits and vegetables to neighbors. Nearly 70% of the distributed food was rated as nutritious based on Healthy Eating Rating guidelines. As we remained committed to providing food to our neighbors, our food acquisition budget also increased. We were projected to spend a record $7.7 million just to purchase food in 2024 and ended up spending more than $8.2 million.
Gleaners offered an increasing number of ways for Hoosiers to get access to nutritious food.
Neighbors face a variety of barriers accessing healthy food, and Gleaners is committed to providing many access points. Gleaners distributed more than 8 million meals through our on-site pantry, while 3,998,828 meals were distributed at mobile pantries. More than 1,256,886 meals were distributed through our home delivery program, while neighbors received 643,488 meals through Gleaners2Go.
Full Impact Numbers Breakdown
One in eight Hoosiers were food insecure.
12.6% food insecurity rate, with 299,260 food insecure people. The child food insecurity rate is 17.2. There were 98,940 food insecure children in 2024.
97,048,993 meals were distributed by Gleaners and the Fresh Connect Central network.
8,662,141 meals were distributed by Gleaners’ on-site pantry — the largest in the state.
3,998,828 meals were distributed via mobile pantries.
35,018,640 meals were distributed by network partners (26,666,667 meals were distributed by faith-based organizations, 1,665,130 meals were distributed by 67 school pantries.
1,256,886 meals were distributed through home delivery.
643,488 meals were distributed through Gleaners2Go.
47,730,995 meals of fresh fruits and vegetables were distributed.
69% of food distributed was rated as nutritious by Healthy Eating Rating guidelines.
1,568,907 SNAP meals were secured by Gleaners through our efforts.
$749,256 in empowerment support through Gleaners’ outreach efforts.
43,529,579 meals distributed to Feeding America food banks.
Take a look at the full impact report here.
