Essential Pandemic Food Program Shutting Down This Week

By Steve Burger, WNIN

June 29, 2021

One of the most enduring memories of the pandemic is the weekly Feed Evansville traffic jam.

Wednesday will be the final Feed Evansville food distribution at Hartke Pool.

At the height of the pandemic, Feed Evansville volunteers distributed seven thousand boxes of food a week. Now, it’s usually around a thousand food packages which they’re paying for themselves since the USDA Farm to Family food distribution program shut down earlier this year.

Feed Evansville co-founder Lisa Vaughan says some jobs did not come back after the pandemic, which revealed the extent of food insecurity in Evansville.

“The majority of people coming through our line are fifty five and up, and they didn’t get their jobs back is what they’re reporting to us. And then, a lot of people prior to COVID were in what we call the ALICE population, so it’s considered working class poverty. This is helping them take the pressure off of their weekly bills.”

Responsibility for addressing food insecurity now shifts to the city’s Commission on Food Security, which was formed earlier this year.

With social media proving to be a breeding ground for misinformation on the coronavirus and vaccines, finding ways to address that and educate people is a major topic these days. It turns out there is a group with a lot of experience dealing with misinformation and viruses.

One of the FEMA-run vaccine clinics is underway in Henderson for the next three weeks. It’s a very different look than what you’ll see elsewhere.

Archie Thomas is a church organist who grew up attending the Greater St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Evansville, Indiana. He still plays here occasionally.

But on this warm spring day, the 49-year-old is visiting for another reason — to get his first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.

WNIN is the NPR/PBS affiliate in Evansville, Indiana. We serve Southwestern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois from our multimedia facility located on the Ohio River in downtown Evansville. For the past several years, the recognized quality of our local news has placed us among the best small market radio news organizations in the nation.