Indianapolis nonprofit continues mission to keep community fed

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis nonprofit is continuing its work to make sure people are fed.

La Plaza has so far distributed roughly 1,000 meal boxes. Like so many others in Indiana, undocumented and immigrant families are facing some financial challenges. And food insecurity is very real. But in a matter of hours, hundreds of boxes of food help relieve some of that burden for the week.

If you’re judging the constant flow of cars through La Plaza’s parking lot on its food distribution day, you’ll know the need for food is there.

“We go through our allocation pretty quickly. After an hour, families have come through, and we’ve been able to give away all our boxes,” said La Plaza CEO Miriam Acevedo-Davis.

La Plaza is a nonprofit that provides services of all kinds to the community. A large portion of those services help the the immigrant community.

And although many immigrants work and put into the local economy, they don’t qualitfy for unemployment assistance or stimulus money.

“So unfortunately, families have very few options of where else to go to be able to get support for food or emergency assistance,” Acevedo-Davis said.

The pandemic has placed a burden on families that some never thought they’d experience. It’s often emotional and financial, and a little bit goes a long way.

In the weeks since Gleaners started providing food boxes, La Plaza has been able to distribute roughly 1,000 of them.

“We can’t stress enough how this is a community response; our community has been hard here by the pandemic,” Acevedo-Davis said.

There’s hope that we’ll see some relief from the pandemic. And La Plaza aims to continue to do what it can. Because even though we’re in a pandemic, life doesn’t stop.