The Elkhart County Walmart store #1566 has provided a grant for $500 to the Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry 2015-2016 Meat the Need donation program. This grant will be used to pay all processing fees for donated meat in Elkhart County, which will then be distributed to area hunger relief agencies.

According to Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, approximately 1 out of every 4 households within Indiana (that have children) report an inability to be able to afford enough food to feed their family and over 30% of Hoosiers regularly have to choose between paying bills or buying food. Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry encourages hunters and farmers to donate large game and livestock to one of our participating butchers to be processed, packaged, and picked up by local hunger relief agencies to be distributed within the community that it was donated and where funding is available. There are no charges or fees to the donor. This nutritious meat/protein is vital to brain and body development in children and young adults. It is also the hardest commodity for food banks to obtain. A grant for $500 will provide almost 1,500 meals to Elkhart County residents in need.

We will be working with Martin’s Custom Butchering (Wakarusa), Homestyle Butchering (Middlebury), John’s Butcher Shop (Nappanee), Martin’s Chicken Butchering (Goshen), Pletcher Poultry Processing (Goshen), Roland’s Processing (New Paris), Slabaugh Meat Processing (Nappanee), Sunshine Acres (Middlebury), and Food Bank of Northern Indiana to make this possible. Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry has partnered with area food banks and butcher shops to help provide over 105,000 pounds of meat during the 2014-2015 season, providing almost 420,000 meals to Indiana residents in need. Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry has provided over 1 million meals to date, working throughout Indiana.