The Executive Director of the Hoosier Hills Food Bank says the operation of the French Lick Resort and Casino is providing a “significant new food donor” for the local community. Julio Alonso made the comment Tuesday as the agency joins others around the country in observing National Hunger Awareness Day. Alonso says the operators of the resort have been very “proactive” in seeking to find a use for food that would otherwise be discarded.
Alonso says making the regular trips to Orange County also allows the food bank to make more frequent deliveries to client agencies in more rural areas that otherwise might not be supplied as regularly.
Alonso says as the community and the nation mark Hunger Awareness Day, the food bank has allocated almost 874 thousand pounds of food in 2007, roughly 77 percent more than was provided in the preceding year. He says part of that increase is due to a different timing of the federal distribution of commodities, but says even so the food bank has probably seen a 40 percent increase in local food distribution. He says to some degree that comes from program expansion, new clients, and so on, but also is partly due to a constant and chronic increase in the number of people who need food assistance.
