June 8, 2021 To our Second Helpings Staff and Volunteers, On June 7th, Marion County issued a new public health order about the use of masks and other COVID-19 prevention measures. Much has changed in our community over recent months. Vaccines are now widely available and positivity rates in Marion County are currently 4.1% compared to 16.8% [...]
Providence Cristo Rey High School provides a variety of resources for their students – all of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch and receive scholarships to attend the school. Sister Kathleen Yeadon, the school’s Family Outreach Coordinator, manages many of these resources, like offering gifts at Christmas or [...]
CEO Jennifer Vigran speaks to Second Helpings staff and volunteers on March 18, the one-year anniversary of our grab-and-go meals, a symbol of our COVID response. When schools in Marion County closed in March last year, the impact on Second Helpings was dramatic and instantaneous. While the [...]
Throughout our organization’s history, the restaurant industry has been critical to Second Helpings’ impact in the community. In fact, that’s where we began. Our three founders were all Chefs, and created Second Helpings to address problems they identified in the industry and community – food waste, hunger, job training, [...]
It goes without saying that this year was unlike any other. The challenges and opportunities presented to Second Helpings in 2020 would have been unimaginable before they came our way. While the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly the story that defined this year for us all, we’d like to take [...]
Join Second Helpings' Executive Chef Kathy Jones for a series of holiday-themed episodes of "Cooking with Kathy" on Facebook Live! All episodes will be live on Second Helpings' Facebook page at 6:00 PM EST. Each week, we'll add links to the recipes so you can follow along if you'd [...]
Earlier this month, Second Helpings delivered the 15,000,000th meal of our 22-year mission to #FeedIndy. Based on previous years’ operations and initial predictions for 2020, Second Helpings reached this milestone nearly a year earlier than originally expected. This quickened pace to produce more meals is in response to the [...]
On September 16, Indy Chamber hosted the “REDi Pitch Night,” a culmination of their five-week ReEntry Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, which offers business training and education to incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated individuals. Program finalists receive five minutes to pitch their business plan, then answer questions from a panel of judges. The [...]
After a five-month pause, the Culinary Job Training (CJT) program is back at Second Helpings! Suspended in mid-March due to COVID-19 precautions, the program’s team has been hard at work planning a new version of the training, which prioritizes safety while still providing students with the same level of [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced nearly every aspect of Second Helpings’ operations from the changing food supply to the growing need for meals. This health crisis also changed our volunteer workforce. Many people chose to restrict their ventures outside the home, due to higher risk factors or other challenges. [...]