The following article was published on Mirror Indy on January 17, 2024. We have made a few slight copy edits and a few minor corrections throughout.
The Community Food Box Project will have a fundraiser from 7-10 pm Sat. Jan. 25.
An empty food box near the campus of Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis represents both hope and need.
On one hand, the small container, supplied by the nonprofit Community Food Box Project, has given students free and easy access to food.
On the other hand, the box at the corner of West 26th Street and North Capitol Avenue is empty because it currently doesn’t have a sponsor to keep it stocked.
In Indianapolis, where nearly a third of residents needed food assistance in 2023, the Community Food Box Project has been making sure food is available in boxes for nearly 10 years.
Sierra Nuckols started the project in 2016. Now, there are nearly 50 food boxes in Indianapolis, with more scattered around the state.
The Community Food Box Project will have a fundraiser from 7:00 – 10:00 pm Jan. 25 at McGowan Hall, 1305 N. Delaware St. The fundraiser will support the project’s work and help the group launch an app to connect people to food boxes.
The event will include music, food, and a silent auction.
Tickets start at $35 on Eventbrite.
Nuckols met with Mirror Indy at the Ivy Tech food box to talk about the origins of the project, the language around food access, and how to get involved.
The Q&A has been edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
How Community Food Box Project started
What was the inspiration to start the Community Food Box Project?
I was part of a scholarship program from Christian Theological Seminary here in Indy. It was for young adults who were passionate about social justice. We got a chance to go to South Africa and learn about the anti-apartheid movement. I saw what they were doing there with food access and drew a lot of parallels to my community here in Indy.
A part of that program was that you had to start your own project in your hometown. I saw an article about the Little Free Pantry movement coming out of Arkansas, so I reached out to them, then just kind of pieced it all together from there.
How food boxes work
You were saying this food box we’re at needs a sponsor. How does that work?
We are going to start having volunteer orientations where volunteers will have different roles. To become a box sponsor, you would first need to sign up to become a volunteer. You can do that through our website.
A sponsor would take care of a box. Basically, they would need to do what it takes to keep the box filled. So either raise money for food or get food and fill the box at least twice a week.
What kind of food goes in the box?
Non-perishable food items go in the box. We recommend donations like pasta, rice, beans, whole grains, granola bars, easy-open tabs for our houseless population. Things with high levels of protein, little packs of hummus, things that you can store in a pantry.
You were saying this box at Ivy Tech gets used by students primarily?
Yeah. This one is used by Ivy Tech students. And then there’s a middle school across the street, and students come over and use the box.
Are boxes strategically located like that?
Yes. When we first started, we used the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s map of food deserts to try to put boxes in or near a food desert area.
Food desert vs. food apartheid
I think “food desert” is a term people have at least heard before. But I’ve noticed the term “food apartheid” is becoming more popular. Can you explain the difference?
Food apartheid is essentially calling to the fact that our food issues are systemic and historical. It’s saying that food insecurity didn’t just happen over a period of time for no reason. This has happened through things like redlining (denying qualified people access to loans because of where they live, which mostly disadvantaged African Americans, even all the way back to slavery and colonization). That’s the term “food apartheid” and how that has systemically created areas of the city that have a lack of access to food. And it’s very connected to some of the racial issues we have as well.
But then, terms like “food desert”—that’s a term used to say there’s not access in one specific neighborhood. But the reason people don’t use that term as much anymore is because that sounds like there’s nothing in that area. But we don’t want to describe it like that. This is something that’s been systemic.
And the way that the Community Food Box Project plays into that is that we’re looking to just provide emergency access to food. We know that food boxes aren’t going to solve the issue of food apartheid. But we do know there still is a crazy demand for emergency food.
Some of our food boxes get utilized once per hour by different people. We know that there’s that issue. We’re just trying to fill a gap that’s not being filled currently.
How to help
For people or organizations or businesses that want to get involved, what’s the best way for them to do that?
The best way to start that process is to reach out by email to contact@communityfoodboxproject.online. You can also go to the website contact page, and there’s a form.
The other way, if you’d like to volunteer, is a tab on the website called Get Involved. You can fill out a form to indicate what kind of volunteer work you’d like to do.
How much do you depend on fundraising and stuff like that to keep doing what you’re doing?
We depend a lot on labor and volunteering and partnerships. The funding is so important because we’re trying to centralize the project so that we can get more food items out to the boxes. And that’s where that funding piece comes in for the overhead. Things like transportation from box to box, or from grocery store to box.
Also, we’re hoping to deploy an app that has an interactive map on it. That’s one of the major reasons for the fundraiser.
Get involved with Community Food Box Project
This story is republished here under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Fill out and submit the form below to start volunteering with Community Food Box Project!
Featured image: Sierra Nuckols, founder of the Community Food Box Project, cleans off a food box at the corner of West 26th Street and North Capitol Avenue in Indianapolis. Credit: Tyler Fenwick/Mirror Indy