2023 Recipient $15,000: Community Grants

submitted by Linsey Thompson, Grants and Foundation Relations Officer

This generous grant was utilized to support programmatic costs for the School-Based Pantry network in Rush County, including the schools at Rushville Consolidated High School and Milroy Elementary School. These funds offset the cost of over 70% of the food these schools received from Gleaners over the grant period, allowing us to sustain our food output at a time of rising food insecurity. These pantries distributed 125,624 pounds of food to 2,417 households, an average of 302 per month.

Lions Pantry at Rushville Consolidated High School is open on the third Thursday of each month to anyone with a student in the Rush County School system. Along with receiving food from Gleaners, Nanette Scanlan, the pantry manager, also works with the school athletic teams to organize food drives for the pantry. The Milroy Community Food Pantry at Milroy Elementary School is open the first Saturday and third Monday of each month to anyone in need of food assistance. Over the 2023-2024 school year, these two pantries distributed over 104,000 meals to the schools and surrounding communities.

These pantries provided a vital resource to our neighbors in Rush County and alleviated the significant financial and emotional burdens of food insecurity. Students received the nutrients necessary to learn and grow, while parents didn’t have to worry about where their child’s next meal would come from. Additionally, because these pantries are located inside schools, this program increased accessibility to food assistance for families with children. Gleaners focuses on sourcing nutritious foods, so the items provided by these pantries also helped promote healthy outcomes for Rush County families. This program has been an incredible tool in helping Gleaners to meet our strategic goal of closing the meal gap, and we are incredibly grateful to the Rush County Community Foundation for your leadership support of the fight against hunger.