Food insecurity in Northern Indiana is affecting residents and children in the community. Cultivate Food Rescue is trying to help.
Mark McGill, Director of Member Relations for the South Bend Regional Chamber was at the groundbreaking for the new cold storage facility on Aug. 1. He says, Cultivate Food Rescue is the only organization between Indianapolis and Detroit that rescues and repurposes perishable food and turns them into balanced, nutritious meals.”
Jim Conklin, Executive Director, says that this year seems more difficult for folks in need, “with recent inflation especially, our pantries are about 40% busier than they were last year at this time.”
The team rescues the food from businesses and then uses local organizations to hand it out, says Conklin, “almost every food business… they have excess food, and we’d like to be that place where they donate that excess food instead of throwing it away.”
Mayor James Mueller says that City of South Bend is honored to partner with Cultivate, “unfortunately we have neighbors who are going hungry,” he says, “and that’s something that we’ve got to work together to address and that’s the mission of cultivate.”
8,000 meals are produced every week for 1200 kids. Congressman Rudy Yakym says that’s a positive impact for the community, “an organization like this that can partner with the community to take food that would normally go to waste and put it in the mouths of hungry people is really a great public service.”
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