Despite signs average incomes are rising slightly in Northwest Indiana, both schools and food banks are finding stubborn and persistent signs of food insecurity.
Since Christine Waugh became principal at Fieler Elementary School in Merrillville four years ago, she has watched as the number of its 459 students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch remain steady around 75 percent – 64 percent on free lunch and 11 percent on reduced-priced lunch.
A variety of factors – the larger economy, presence of single-parent families and growing number of children in foster care – explain why the need remains.
"Our percentage is high," Waugh said. "It's been consistent."
Statewide, about 20.9 percent of children in Indiana live in poverty and 48.2 percent of children in public schools qualified for a free or reduced-price lunch in 2016, according to a KIDS COUNT report released last month by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It was released by the Indiana Youth Institute.
About 43 schools in Lake County participate in the Community Eligibility Provision through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that funds a free breakfast program – the third highest in the state after Marion County (Indianapolis) and Allen County (Fort Wayne).
The average median household income in Lake County dipped slightly to $50,135 in 2015 from $50,774 in 2014. In Porter County, it rose to $63,926 in 2015 from $63,030 in 2014.
In 2015, the number of children seeking free lunches rose slightly in Lake County to 51.1 percent from 48.7 percent in 2014. In Porter County, the number of children seeking free lunches rose slightly to 27.5 percent in 2015 from 27.3 percent in 2014, according to the report.
The number of children seeking reduced lunches dipped slightly in Lake County to 5.6 percent in 2015 from 5.7 percent. In Porter County, it fell to 7.0 percent in 2015 from 7.3 percent in 2014.
"That's not a statistic that we want to have," said Steve Beekman, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana.
Beekman estimated that his organization would need to serve 17 million meals each year to fulfill hunger needs each year in Lake and Porter counties. They only have the capacity to provide 4.3 million, he said.
"The dollar doesn't stretch as far, even if they are employed," he said. "There are people that are working, but it's not people that are unemployed that (most) need our services."
Those figures could be a sign that many Northwest Indiana families are still struggling to meet basic needs while highlighting its historic inequality between communities, said Dr. Micah Pollak, assistant professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest in Gary.
"Cost of living has been rising: healthcare, some of those big ticket items that a household has to deal with," he said. Judging economic improvement by average incomes doesn't take into account where growth lies and "really hides a lot of the details."