Gleaners teams up with Andretti Harding Steinbrenner in food security campaign

The conversations started around Thanksgiving, John Elliott says. He wanted to take his time, to be deliberate. To make sure this was the right move, with the right people. Initially, it was just the Harding Steinbrenner Racing IndyCar team. Andretti Autosport came along the way.

Now they — and driver Colton Herta — are teaming up with Gleaners, the food bank network Elliott runs as CEO, and Anthem, the healthcare provider anchored in Indianapolis. That’s part of this, too. Every organization involved here is local. Elliott wanted it that way.

“It’s a combination of best in their business organizations that, to me, sets this up for success,” Elliott told the IndyStar. “And when you think about a very daunting goal, like closing a 53 million-meal gap per year in the Gleaners 21-county service area — how do you do that?”

Fifty-three million — that’s a daunting number. And it’s gotten worse during the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more Hoosiers without jobs and food security. Food costs have gone up because of strains on the supply chain, which means Gleaners is competing against retailers just to place orders. They’re also ordering more food, because more people are hungry. He says that means they need eight times as much money — and on top of that, since it’s dangerous for people to be together, Gleaners has been unable to rely on volunteer service, which accounted for about 40 percent of its workforce pre-pandemic.

Throughout the state and the greater Indianapolis area, there are “food deserts,” a lack of access to healthy food within a geographical boundary. That contributes to the problem, too. If you’re hungry, you’re not going to hold out for a healthier meal.

“Nearly 1 million people in Indiana struggle with hunger every day, and 1 in 6 children in the state of Indiana don’t have access to healthy food on a regular basis,” Anthem CFO and executive vice president John Gallina said. “Anthem really looks at the social determinants of health and things that can really help improve the health of the communities. The communities where we live, the communities where we operate. Clearly access to healthy food is right at the top of the list.”

So, how do you tackle that kind of problem? Let Elliott explain.

“If a family’s dealing with hunger, they likely are dealing with some combination of job insecurity, not just food insecurity,” he said. “There may be an opportunity for them to enhance their education or their workforce training. It may be affecting kids who are in school, it may be affecting housing, physical health, mental health, transportation. There’s typically some mix that families are dealing with together. 

“So part of our strategic plan also is about working with whatever the appropriate mix of partners is, who bring in their expertise and their resources, to try to deliver solutions to those challenges to those families simultaneously. The way they’re struggling with them — if they’re dealing with hunger, transportation and unemployment at the same time, Gleaners should team up with at least two other players and hand them combined solutions. 

“So we were just embarking on launching our work around that strategic plan when the pandemic hit and suddenly we find every program and every job and everything we do has changed. So amidst that change, it became even more important to really leverage the opportunity and leverage the partnerships.”

That’s how you get the kind of effort that helps produce the campaign Gleaners announced Thursday morning, entitled No One Runs on Empty. The goal is to provide 10 million meals. Anthem has committed to match the first $1 million in donations and Bank of America has already contributed $250,000 toward the campaign.

Helping out is as simple as donating. Gleaners discourages donating food directly — it’s cheaper for them to buy food with money that’s donated. Volunteering is also restarting, as the organization starts to fade out the National Guard troops that have been deployed to help out during the pandemic. 

The partnership with Anthem is longstanding, as the two parties have worked together for years. Even in responding to the pandemic, Anthem volunteered call center employees to help translate for families that could only speak Spanish, so they would have access to boxed meals.

As for Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport, Herta’s No. 88 car in the GMR Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 will feature the Gleaners logo, with the hope of raising more awareness — and in turn, donations and volunteer hours. 

“I can’t really think of anything more appropriate in the metro Indianapolis market than attaching that to racing,” Elliott said.