Indiana 4-H, FFA, and Farmers Address Hunger in Indiana

Over the weekend, several hundred of Indiana’s top 4H youth traveled to the State Fairgrounds for the Indiana 4H Leadership Congress.  A day of seminars stressed leadership development and community involvement, said Steve McKinley, conference coordinator, “We talked about how you can not only do community service but also do community service learning, a way the young people can get an education while being involved in community service work.” He said several announcements were made of funding for community service projects through local extension offices.  One of the major initiatives at the Congress was “Hunger in Indiana” and what local 4-H clubs can do to address hunger in their communities. McKinley said this will be a major focus of Hoosier 4-H in 2013, “We now have a facebook page, Indiana 4-H Citizenship, where you can see what is going on with 4-H clubs across the state as they address hunger in their area.”  Many clubs have had food drives and other activities, but the Congress seminars urged them to do more. “We gave them the resources to go back home and learn about hunger in their community and encouraged them to work with other organizations to address the issue on the local level,” said McKinley.

On Tuesday, Indiana FFA members, Indiana corn and soybean farmers, and the Indianapolis Colts will come together in an event to help fight hunger.  The event will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium and will bring more than 2,000 volunteers together. Volunteers will pack nutritious meals that will be distributed through Gleaners, Midwest Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana to help end hunger for the one in four Hoosier children who are food insecure. Colts DE Cory Redding, spokesperson for the Colts and Indiana Corn and Soybean “Hoosier Horsepower” program, will kick off this event by packing meals with FFA students from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

In addition to supporting the Million Meal Marathon, the goal of the “Hoosier Horsepower” program is to feed enough Indiana children to fill Lucas Oil Stadium (65,000). For every tackle the Colts make during the 2012 season, $10 will be donated to Kids Against Hunger. Kids Against Hunger packages highly nutritious, life-saving meals for malnourished and starving children and their families in the United States and developing countries.