Your Gift Is Working. Here’s Proof.

Every dollar donated to Second Helpings goes to work immediately, rescuing food, feeding neighbors, and changing lives across Central Indiana. Here’s a look at what that means in the real world.

A Meal That Made a Difference

Twice a week, the team at PrimeLife Enrichment sets the tables and opens the doors. Lunch is handled and we deliver it like clockwork, so they never spend the morning wondering where the food is coming from. Instead, they spend the time on their mission and the older adults walking in.

Their Executive Director spends that time at the tables talking to the people they serve:

“I always enjoy meeting new people who come to PrimeLife just for the meals and socializing. Many of the people I meet are not members of our center, they come for the free meal and to have an opportunity to eat with friends they meet here.”

Some of those guests come for lunch and stay for the company.

That’s what your gift makes possible. Not just a meal, but the freedom for an entire organization to do its best work. Over the past year, we saved the organizations we serve more than $20 million.

By the Numbers

1.4 Million+ Meals

prepared and delivered last fiscal year.

5 Million of Pounds Food Rescued

from landfills or going to waste last fiscal year.

220+ Community Partners

across 7 counties in Central Indiana.

1,110+ Culinary Graduates

trained since our founding.

$20 Million Saved

for our partners in food costs last year — so they can focus on their missions.

$1.72

is the cost of one meal. Your gift goes far.

Melvin’s Story: Nowhere to Go But Up

When Melvin Lipscomb walked into our Culinary Job Training program, he’d already done the hardest part: deciding who he wanted to become.

Melvin came to us through our partners at Fathers and Families Center, where he’d been preparing for reentry and rebuilding his foundation, completing classes, earning construction certifications, and showing up, day after day, with the kind of consistency that people remember. A father of one, he was determined to build stability for himself and a stronger future for his family.

In our kitchen, that determination was impossible to miss. While working a part-time job and completing the program, Melvin never missed a day, earning Perfect Attendance recognition along the way. When ServSafe results came back, he’d posted the highest score in his class. Our staff saw the same things his mentors at FFC had seen: a student who came ready to learn, owned his past honestly, and treated every lesson as a chance to prove, to himself, most of all, that he was serious about a different future.

“I realized I had nowhere to go but up,” Melvin says. “I could have chosen to go backward and fail, but I didn’t want that for myself, so I progressed.”

Today, Melvin is a cook at Ash & Elm Cider Co., with his sights set on becoming an executive chef, or one day owning a business of his own. We wouldn’t bet against him.

Melvin’s story is why our Culinary Job Training program exists: when people get the right tools, real encouragement, and a genuine opportunity, they don’t just find jobs. They build futures. We’re proud to have been one chapter in Melvin’s story, and we can’t wait to see what he cooks up next.

Thank You — From All of Us

Second Helpings exists because people like you believe that no one in Central Indiana should go without a nutritious meal. Because of your gift, our kitchen keeps running, our drivers keep rolling, our students keep learning, and our neighbors keep eating.

We don’t take that for granted. Not for a single day.

With gratitude,

The Second Helpings Team

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