Hoosier Hills Food Bank honors New Hope with Hunger Action Award
New Hope nutritional coordinator Holly Waldkoetter with the Hoosier Hills Food Bank 2021 Hunger Action Award for Outstanding Agency Partner
During their 15th annual Hunger Action Awards ceremony on Friday, June 4, 2021, Hoosier Hills Food Bank (HHFB) officially honored New Hope for Families with the award for Outstanding Agency Partner.
This award recognizes New Hope for creating a food pantry and expanding our nutrition efforts to shield families from a potential hunger crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The award was presented by Erin Hollinden, HHFB’s Manager of Agency Partnerships and Service Equity, and graciously accepted by New Hope’s nutritional coordinator Holly Waldkoetter.
“I am truly humbled to be a part of the expanding support that New Hope has developed to address food insecurity among our clients and community during the pandemic,” said Waldkoetter. “I am grateful to have been able to help lead these efforts at New Hope and I want to thank both my team of colleagues at New Hope and the brilliant folks at HHFB for their unending support.”
When the pandemic hit our community in early 2020, New Hope faced many challenges. We responded by doubling our capacity to shelter families. We created an in-house food pantry to help provide meals for all these families, as well. In addition, we stepped up our food services across our shelter and childcare programs to help sustain families who suddenly found themselves without access to school food programs.
Due to COVID-19, food insecurity became an increasing issue for many families and individuals in our community. HHFB made it possible to provide a variety of fresh and nutritious food to families who may have otherwise gone hungry during this challenging time. With their support, we were able to provide specially curated grocery boxes for families in need and cook meals for those in quarantine at the COVID-19 isolation shelter, as well as continuing to provide stable, nutritious meals for the children attending The Nest at New Hope.
Left to right: Hoosier Hills Food Bank manager of agency partnerships and service equity Erin Hollinden, New Hope nutritional coordinator Holly Waldkoetter, and New Hope executive director Emily Pike (courtesy photo)
We would not have been able to meet this dramatic increase in demand for our services without our partners at Hoosier Hills. Throughout 2020, New Hope received and distributed 117% more food from HHFB.
As part of our mission to provide shelter to families with children, New Hope works closely with many partner agencies in our community, including HHFB. New Hope has been an HHFB partner agency since 2011.
“Emily and Holly do not seem to have words like ‘limitations’ or ‘barriers’ in their vocabularies,” said Hollinden. “It is a pleasure to be part of their family, as they are part of ours.”
It is a special pleasure to be recognized by one of our peers.