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 Mayor was still speaking, calls and emails came in from afterschool programs and senior centers, cancelling programs and meal deliveries.

Just a few days later, the Governor closed restaurants, and it became clear that Second Helpings needed to help partner agencies provide food to their neighbors in new ways. The next day, our staff was up early buying microwavable containers to provide agencies with individual and family-sized meals that could be distributed and shared safely at home.

Since then, more than a half million grab-and-go containers have been distributed from Second Helpings’ kitchen as well as those of our satellite kitchen partners, Sahm’s, Cunningham Restaurant Group, Side Street Catering, and The Alexander. These partners built virtually limitless capacity into Second Helpings’ ability to respond to the crushing need for food assistance, and we are truly grateful for their support.

In those first few days, racks and racks of prepared food came in from hotels, caterers, and venues around the city. I remember one cart was just trays of condiments already portioned into small containers, as if they would be placed on the table and served in just a few minutes.

Second Helpings now packages meals in grab-and-go containers for safe eating at home.

Shortly thereafter came the calls from the restaurants. Over the past year, Second Helpings has responded to calls to recover the last remnants from the kitchens of beloved gathering places and family businesses that couldn’t hold on through the pandemic. Each of these food rescues tore at the hearts of our staff who were keenly aware of the personal loss they represented.

So many partnerships have been forged or strengthened over the past year. Foremost among them are those with my colleagues at Gleaners and Midwest Food Bank. Our three organizations have worked together, sharing resources, problem-solving, and supporting one another in a common goal to ensure that Hoosiers were fed. Dozens of new partner agencies stepped up to distribute Second Helpings meals to those hardest-hit by the recession and the pandemic, while IndyParks, the Indianapolis Urban League, and many others expanded their programs to provide Second Helpings meals to anyone who needed them.

What made Second Helpings’ response to the pandemic remarkable is how many people participated in the effort. The Indiana National Guard worked side by side with Second Helpings staff and volunteers last summer, filling in for corporate groups and other volunteers who were no longer able to help.  Volunteers at home sewed hundreds of masks to help keep our staff safe. The Central Indiana COVID-19 Community Economic Relief Fund supported by the Lilly Endowment, United Way, and many others, provided early funding to ensure that Second Helpings could act quickly, followed by the City of Indianapolis dedicating CARES Act dollars to support home delivery for at-risk and homebound residents, and thousands of individual and corporate donors who made gifts small and large to support our work.

Deputy Mayor Jeff Bennett joins the one-year commemoration to offer remarks on behalf of Mayor Joe Hogsett and to proclaim March 18, 2021 “Second Helpings Day” across Indianapolis.

Finally, there is the Second Helpings staff, supported by a hearty group of volunteers who still came every week to feed our community. They have been here every day, despite personal challenges and their own health risks, taking steps to protect each other and tirelessly devoted to ensuring that everyone who asked for help, got it. I have prayed for them every day, and each time another staff member is eligible for a vaccine, I celebrate.

We are certainly not out of this yet, but I am hopeful. Each new day brings back old friends – volunteers who return fully vaccinated and pick up exactly where they left off last spring. Agency partners are slowly bringing back community programs for seniors and children around our city and restaurants are once again offering opportunities to our Culinary Job Training graduates.

The year ahead will bring new challenges to continue to work beyond pre-pandemic levels to meet the needs of struggling households whose savings have been exhausted. Those families will feel the impact of this recession far after the pandemic has passed. But I am as confident that just as we have these past 12 months, our entire Second Helpings community will rise to that challenge, together.