About 90,000 people across Indiana received food from Community Harvest Food Bank last year, a surge of 85 percent from four years ago, according to the results of a comprehensive study released Tuesday.

In all, about three of 20 people in northeast Indiana – or 15 percent of the total population – needed emergency food in 2009, according to the estimates. Almost half were children.

“This shows there are a lot of people in our area who need help,” Executive Director Jane Avery said. “They’re hungry, and they need our help.”

Avery estimated about half the increase came from a surge in demand because of the economy. The other half was because the food bank is better at quickly and effectively distributing food to those who need it. Last year, it distributed more than 9 million pounds of food to nine counties in northeast Indiana.

Many people who came to the area’s food pantries, soup kitchens and emergency shelters were the “working poor,” Avery said.

The local study was part of a nationwide hunger survey conducted between February and June last year by Feeding America. About 37 million Americans have received food from a food bank, the survey said.

Nearly 650,000 Hoosiers received emergency food from food banks, according to the report, which also found nearly 300,000 were children.

The local results are based on 290 interviews Community Harvest staffers conducted with clients at area pantries, soup kitchens and shelters and surveys of churches and organizations that hand out the food Community Harvest distributes.

The local survey included the following results:

•About 40 percent had at least one adult in the household working and 30 percent were living above the federal poverty line.

•Almost half had to choose between feeding their families and paying heating or utility bills.

•About 40 percent reported they had to decide whether to eat or put gasoline in their vehicles.

•About 60 percent of the food recipients were white, 25 percent were black and 10 percent were Hispanic.

One of the biggest changes between this study and the previous one released in 2006 was the number of people who received government assistance for food.

Of the northeast Indiana residents surveyed, 28 percent received food stamps compared with 41 percent four years ago.

Avery said she doesn’t know what role the state’s beleaguered efforts to privatize food stamp distribution played in the change. But when access to other sources of food becomes more difficult, people are forced to turn to the food bank, she said.

Avery said she hopes the survey results are seen as a call to action. Everybody can do something to help, she said, whether it’s cash donations to the food bank for people who are gainfully employed or gardeners and farmers donating a row or an acre of crops or a cow.

The problem will likely not improve until jobs return to the area, she said.

Even if unemployment eases, demand for emergency food assistance will likely be high for several more months as people get back on their feet.

mzennie@jg.net