He also said the city will move to narrow Washington and Jefferson boulevards downtown.FORT WAYNE – Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., announced his participation Wednesday in a $5 million capital campaign for Community Harvest Food Bank that aims to reduce hunger by 50 percent in five years.
Lugar, along with Mike Packnett, president and chief executive officer of Parkview Health, are honorary co-chairmen of the campaign titled “Hunger: Help Us Fill the Need.”
“Even as we think about the world and starving people, … it’s very difficult for most Americans to comprehend the statistics,” Lugar told dozens of regional leaders and business people gathered at the food bank’s East Tillman Road location. “The demand for food around the world is growing. It’s a very serious predicament.”
Jane Avery, the food bank’s executive director, cited statistics for the nine-county area the food bank serves as a preface to the campaign.
Last Saturday alone, the food bank gave 17 tons of food to feed an estimated 3,000 people. Fifteen percent of the region’s population is served by the food bank, she said.
Packnett said he’s “really blown away” by the campaign’s goal of reducing hunger by 50 percent by 2015.
“This is such worthwhile work,” he said.
The food bank has already received $1.9 million in support for the campaign.
In 2007, the Azar family donated a building at 1010 Coliseum Blvd. N. along with $200,000 for repairs to the food bank so that the donated building could be used as a secondary location, Avery said.
The capital campaign aims to further renovate the donated building along with the East Tillman Road location, which eventually will become a storage site for dry goods, she said.
Avery said the idea for the campaign came about in January when the food bank’s board members had a retreat. They discussed the most recent hunger study and the continual need in the region.
Lugar said he values the work of the food bank because its efforts draw attention to the hunger issue and make food more readily available for those who need it.
Other initiatives in the capital campaign include soliciting donations from regional farmers for fresh produce. That produce will be processed at the Coliseum Boulevard location. Some produce will be frozen, so that it can be distributed year-round, Avery said.
Money from the campaign will also be used to buy new equipment and continue and expand current programs to serve the hungry, Avery said.
Earlier in the day, Lugar stopped by the Walmart at 1710 Apple Glenn Blvd. to promote Hoosiers Fighting Hunger, a food drive now in its second year that kicked off Wednesday. As part of the kickoff, Lugar bought a bag of food and donated it to the food drive.
In 2009, Hoosiers donated 138 tons of food to the drive, part of National Hunger Action Month.
