Food Bank of Northwest Indiana uses a modern Order Ahead Food Locker system to combat hunger

LAKE COUNTY, Ind. (WLS) — On this Giving Tuesday, you may want to consider throwing your support to your local food bank.

The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana serves both Lake and Porter counties. Nearly 91,000 people face food insecurity in that area.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

But one of the many ways they’re helping fight hunger is through their free and innovative Order Ahead Food Locker program.

“Imagine if there’s an individual who doesn’t meet the requirements for food assistance and holds down two jobs. They can simply visit the food locker to collect their food, a process that lasts about two minutes. All they need to do is enter a personal identification number (PIN) to open the refrigerated or freezer locker,” explained Julie Anderson, the innovative technologies coordinator at the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana.

RELATED: ABC7 Chicago teams up with local food banks to fight food insecurity with ‘Feed the Love’

Right now, the lockers offer a variety box that includes all the food groups. But the goal is to eventually let the customers choose their own items.

“People can be served with dignity and respect, our veterans, our single parents, our elderly,” Anderson said. “They can come in the middle of the night, if they want. if they don’t want anyone to see them and I love that part of it because it’s getting great food to great people in a very respectful way.

There are currently five operational lockers in Northwest Indiana with a sixth one coming soon to Crown Point.

The program is helping feed more than one thousand people a month