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Community Food Box Project
Serving the Indianapolis Community
Established in 2016, Community Food Box Project provides 24-hour emergency food assistance in neighborhoods facing food insecurity. We partner with schools, churches, community centers and businesses to install little free pantries for those in need.
83 Community Food Boxes installed in Indianapolis and Southern Indiana
50 community and corporate partnerships
1000+ individuals fed each week
What is food insecurity?
Food Insecurity is the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
Below: SAVI map of the food deserts (an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food) in Indianapolis.
On the right: More charts outlining the food insecurity problem in Indianapolis
Credit: SAVI.org
Community Food Box Project Mission:
Community Food Box Project is dedicated to relieving food insecurity by bringing individuals together to design, maintain, and install community food boxes in their own neighborhoods
Get to know our Founder:
Sierra Nuckols is from a culturally diverse neighborhood on the eastside of Indianapolis. Born to a 15-year-old mom, Sierra grew up hearing stories about hunger and poverty throughout her family lineage. She graduated from Hanover College in 2018 with a Bachelors in Anthropology. Sierra has visited 5 countries in search of knowledge about food systems, sovereignty, and social justice. During a visit to South Africa in 2016, Sierra met Desmond Tutu who inspired her to take action in solving hunger in Indianapolis. Shortly after her return from South Africa, Sierra developed Community Food Box Project in partnership with the Little Free Pantry movement. Since then, Sierra has obtained an Urban Agriculture certificate from Purdue University and managed 2 urban farms in Indianapolis. Through all of these experiences, Sierra learned about the term "Food Apartheid." This is a term coined by Karen Washington of Rise and Root Farm in New York. Food Apartheid makes clear that we have a human-created system of segregation that relegates certain groups to food opulence and prevents others from accessing life-giving nourishment (borrowed from Farming While Black by Leah Penniman). Sierra hopes to eventually combine her passions of providing emergency food access and fighting against food apartheid in the form of agricultural education.
Further reading on Food Apartheid: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nina-sevilla/food-apartheid-racialized-access-healthy-affordable-food
