Good morning.

Commissioners at this bright and happy hour.

Thank you for being here.

This is the mayor's advisory commission on food access.

We are meeting on July 16th at 7 30 a.m.

in the morning.

So thank you for everyone being here.

We do have a quorum.

We have a full agenda this morning, so I'm going to get right to it by calling the meeting to order and asking.

Now we you'll notice that we have an agenda.

Thank you to Sheila from the mayor's office who is getting us all formalized.

And we will have a resolution that we will have to vote on this afternoon, or excuse me, at the end of the meeting.

And hopefully everybody's had a chance to uh read it.

If we have questions, we can have debate, but we are trying to follow open door laws and uh regarding how we use or how we allow our members to be on line, which is uh the same for all commissions, all committees, city council, everything.

So we we just have to fall in line with that.

So um we are uh going to have three presentations today, but I want to start out and ask Amanda if she could just give a quick update.

The the probably most pressing business in front of us right now is applying for the grant with the U.S.

Conference of Mayors.

And Amanda had a great conference call with um with that group, and I'll let her give you an update.

Thank you.

So you might recall that at our June meeting, Andrew Bradford attended.

Um, and at the end when we were discussing the grant, Andrew offered assistance from his consulting group.

Um I did connect with Emily and Danielle from Bradford Consulting Group, and they have been assisting us with the grant.

Uh Cindy J and I met with Emily, one of the grant writers, and had a great conversation about the overall grant and our angle.

I submitted the grant inquiry on July 7th with direct guidance from Emily and Danielle.

So the grant is centering on childhood hunger and how federal programs might assist with this, addressing this.

Uh we decided that our approach to the grant is a hybrid model that would allow for placing a benefits navigator across Carmel's food pantries and launching a public awareness campaign, doing so in coordinated effort with Merciful Help, Carmel UMC, Grace Care Center, um, to connect eligible families with SNAP in the school breakfast program.

Uh following that grant inquiry submission this week, Chairman Warrell, Sheila Much, and I met with Erin Goldstein, uh senior manager at Share Our Strength.

Share Our Strength is partnering with the Mayor's Action Fund on this grant.

Uh we just wanted to discuss our approach to the grant.

And we learned that 2026 is the second year for this particular grant, and our approach of a hybrid model is unique from the previous year, so that any specifics we can apply um provide on the grant moving forward would be helpful for our position.

We'll find out early next week if we are moving forward, and then the application opens July 22nd and closes August 21st.

Very good, thank you.

And can you just um who is serving what commissioners are serving on this task force for the grant can um from this group?

Well, so far I've got a lot of support.

Um Cindy and Jay definitely met, and I'm happy for anyone else to jump aboard.

So Cindy and Jay, big thanks for for assisting and helping.

Big job.

Um Amanda during this conference call was absolutely over the top, prepared, professional, represented the citizens of Carmel.

Great.

I mean, it was so impressive.

Thank you, Cindy.

And I think the um, you know, this group that is in charge of the grant was impressed as well.

So they they did uh speak very highly of this tack that you're taking for a hybrid model, hasn't been done before, and you know, Carmel likes to be different and unique.

So it was all good, all good.

So thank you very much for your work on that.

Fingers crossed, uh, whatever you do, do it uh if it can be in support of us getting this $25,000 grant.

Uh the other thing that I might mention is that we are looking for uh one of the the things that we're talking about in this grant is the opportunity to raise matching funds, which would make the grant go further.

So if without you know spilling our candy in the lobby, so to speak, and giving away too much, we are looking for organizations that should we get this grant and have an opportunity or have an interest, would be willing to partner with us.

And certainly we would consider in-kind, but also looking for cash is how could we make our grant more powerful by being a $50,000 spend instead of a $25,000 spend.

So I'm putting that out to the commissioners.

I know you're all highly uh connected, and we are also pulling some levers behind the scenes as well.

And so uh just if we can work together, anyone has any ideas, thoughts on how we might make that go further.

Let Amanda know.

Well, Amanda, you'll be the uh front point.

All right, now um not too much talking from me, but also Cindy.

We in the future are going to to follow protocol.

We're gonna have to uh kind of just give a quick uh send out some minutes and um get those approved at every meeting.

So Cindy has uh been gracious enough to agree to be our I don't know, I call scribe, but the person who is going to help us put this uh report together at the end, so she's keeping great notes and and hopefully we can now convert those into minutes.

So if the next meeting, if you would be prepared to do that.

Absolutely.

Okay, love it.

Love it, love it, love it.

So uh it is uh the work of this committee to um understand where we have gaps in the system, um, how any of our citizens might be experiencing lack of food, lack of nutrition, and in need, or um, or is there a way for the for the city to make connections to help identify those gaps and make connections?

And we have spent our uh preceding meetings looking at different areas, and one of the areas that we'd like to focus on today is um how our seniors are being taken care of, and then also uh getting a report on uh from feeding Indiana's hungry just in general.

Now, if there is some uh some focus, that's what we're all up here trying to understand and learn about.

So I don't want to claim that I know anything about any of these three wonderful organizations, except that I do know that you are wonderful and we're grateful to have you in our community.

So uh we're gonna start out with Emily Wycart White Bryant.

Am I saying that correctly?

White, okay.

And she is the extra executive director of feeding Indiana's Hungry.

We then will go on to Tricia Hudson.

She is the executive director CEO of Meals on Wheels of Hamilton County.

And then uh we will have a presentation from Sloane Thompson.

She is the executive director of Prime Life Enrichment.

So thank you for being here at this early hour.

And uh we normally allow you to kind of give us a presentation, educate us on who you are, and then hopefully you will allow us to ask some questions.

And I'll kind of you know help this move along, but uh but do take the time you need in order to communicate your message and what your organization does.

So thank you.

So uh big welcome to Emily Wikert Bryant.

Thank you, good morning.

Uh as you mentioned, my name is Emily Wikert Brian, and the executive director of Feeding Indiana's Hungry.

We are the State Association of Feeding America affiliate food banks that collectively are members serve all 92 counties in Indiana.

Uh Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana serves Central Indiana and uh and Hamilton County and would strongly encourage them to you to have them come speak to you about what they do in this county.

I'm here to provide sort of an overview of the charitable food sector, um, a little bit about food insecurity, and I was told that you wanted to talk about SNAP, so I'm happy to do that as well.

I don't have handouts or slides for you because I wanted this to be more of a conversation.

I'm not sure where your baseline is.

Please interrupt me for questions any time, uh, or if you know exactly what I'm talking about, just tell me to move on.

That's also fine.

Um I think you can assume we know nothing.

Okay.

I can do that.

Um let me back up just a little bit.

Our food banks uh distributed 140 million pounds of food last year statewide.

And they do so through direct programs through the food banks, whether that is an on-site pantry, uh, mobile distributions, other programs, hospital pantries, school-based pantries, uh, meeting folks where they are in the community, either run through the food bank or working with partner agencies.

Our food banks collectively work with about 1,800 small additional nonprofits in and the charitable sector uh and a lot of faith-based folks were they provide the food to those other agencies to distribute.

So, you know, we don't need to reinvent the wheel if there are pantries.

Sorry, there are pantries in places who are already doing the work, we help them with food.

For example, I know that uh Gleaners Food Bank works with is it Mount Carmel?

Um, they've been here to to present, but it is uh merciful help center.

Gotcha.

Okay, perfect.

Um let's dive into the food and security data a little bit.

Um, and all the data that I'm giving you right now is publicly available.

I'll send Sheila the links to where it's at.

Um I will also add that you're you're catching me about two weeks too early.

There's new data coming out on June or July 28th.

Um, and so I'll be I'll be sure to forward that as well.

Um but we talk about food insecurity.

So there's food insecurity research that has been done by the USDA annually, unfortunately.

Their last survey, they have discontinued that last year.

Um I can tell you that the Feeding America Network and our organization is committed to continue to do the same latitudinal and longitudinal research with a lot of external partners and in any way that we can.

So we already have two research projects in the hopper for our organization for the next year.

Um we look at Hamilton County, Hamilton County is often the example that I I use because Hamilton County typically has the lowest food insecurity rate, but we're talking about a lot of people, right?

So you're talking about percentages, but you're talking about a larger number than you would in perhaps a rural county with a higher percentage, but fewer people.

Um Hamilton County's food insecurity rate for the whole population is 10.1%.

Statewide is fifty was 15.1 for comparison, but we're still talking about 36,000 individuals.

Um those 79%, which is much higher than the state's average of 56%, have income that would put them above being eligible for SNAP.

Yes, can I ask you just quickly?

Yeah, so what year is this?

This is I'm sorry, this is 2023 data.

So there's about a two-year lag.

And United for Alice just came out with a new report that has 2024 data.

Have you looked at that?

Only in passing, but it's fantastic.

Our 2024 data is what comes out in July.

It comes out later this month.

Um, and I can't, I have it, but it's embargoed.

Yes, sir.

Um, would you expect the numbers to be higher today than 2023, or are we getting better or no idea?

In my uh professional speculation, I would anticipate the numbers will go up simply because access to federal nutrition programs has become more restricted.

And in doing so, is creating more food insecurity because the affordability of food is not becoming better.

Okay, thank you.

Yes.

Um, so the 79% are not eligible for SNAP.

What's important to remember is that food insecurity does not equate poverty.

It is certainly an a good sign, but just because you have resources and you are employed, as very many, the majority of folks who who use the SNAP program are, does not mean you have the resources to provide to pay all of your bills and have grocery money, right?

So food insecurity means you lack the resources available to get good and affordable food.

Um the child food insecurity percentage in in, I'm sorry, in Hamilton County is 8.6%.

State average is 18.5.

Uh, that's still just under 8,000 kids, and 56% of those would not be eligible for free and reduced.

Um interestingly, the state number on that Hamilton County is significantly higher.

The state number is 28%.

Important to remember that when you're looking at child food insecurity, the eligibility threshold for free and reduced lunch is 180% of poverty.

For the full family and for adults, SNAP is 130% of poverty.

Um, so a very different number.

Um I would, I think at this point, lead into the conversation on SNAP, unless there are follow-up questions.

Okay.

All right.

Um, what's important to remember the the 140 million meals, I'm sorry, 40 million pounds that our members distributed for every one meal that a Feeding America affiliate food bank provides, SNAP provides nine.

It is a perfect public-private partnership where benefits go directly to the family for them to use benefits at retail.

The economic impact is easily a dollar fifty per dollar because it's being spent in the community at retailers.

There's more than 5,000 SNAP retailers across the country across the state.

It's being spent at grocery stores, it's being spent in convenience stores, it's being spent at co-ops, it's being spent at farmers markets.

So the money is going back into the community, and it's the perfect example of what we would call a client choice scenario.

If you visit a food pantry, they're gonna have a lot of selection for you, we hope, right?

That's the goal for there to be options between you know, you can choose X number of vegetables, X number of proteins.

But going to the grocery store is the ultimate in client choice.

The example that I like to give is if you go to a pantry, you're gonna, if there's canned goods, which are harder and harder to come by because they have a secondary and tertiary market now, right?

Um you're gonna choose between corn and green beans.

If you go to the grocery store, you're gonna choose between 25 different cuts of green beans with sodium, without low sodium, you know, you're looking at things that are maybe canned in different ways, and you're looking at at all the options available, which is important because it provides a greater dignity, but it also helps families meet their dietary needs restrictions and desires.

Um the FSSA puts out a monthly management report for the whole state on SNAP enrollment, but they also do it by county.

Um I will send that link.

The most recent data that's posted right now is March of 2026.

I will give you the caveat that the county reports disappear each month when they're yeah, I'm not sure.

We're we're trying to work through through that with with FSSA to figure out how we can collect that.

Um the Kelly School of Business does hold that data online longer than the state does.

So I'll send you that link as well.

Um, the Hamilton County report for March of 2026 indicated that there were 3,149 households throughout the county on SNAP and 6,571 individuals.

The monthly issuance, which is the amount of benefits coming to those individuals and families for just that month is more than 1.3 million dollars to Hamilton County.

Um the annual recipients, I would add, has dropped a little more than 13% year over year from March of 25 to March of 26.

Um, and they actually have for the county, they have the the number of families and the number of individuals by zip code.

My understanding if I did my research right, is that Carmel has two zip codes.

It's about 12% of those individuals are coming from a caramel zip code.

Um I'm gonna go through sort of the basics on SNAP to give you a broader perspective.

This is the same sort of presentation I do for food food pantry folks, for public officials, um, kind of runs the gamut.

Should have backed up with this.

SNAP is the supplemental nutrition assistance program.

It was formerly called food stamps, uh, is still sometimes called that, depending on where you're looking, and it allows uh participant participants, excuse me, I'm on my first cup of tea this morning, participants to buy food with the EBT with an electronic benefit transfer card, right?

It cannot be spent on foods that are hot or prepared.

One of the outliers you'll see is you can go to Papa Murphy's and buy the pizza that they haven't that they've set up, but they have it cooked for you, they haven't baked for you.

Otherwise, you're looking at food that is not prepared, is not warm.

Um, and it's designed to mitigate hunger for low-income people of all demographics.

Also important is to know what you can and cannot use it for.

Um for quite a few years, by the way, the benefits have not actually been on stamps.

We've moved to the EBT card, which is what why we have changed the name.

Um, SNAP eligible foods include breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, and poultry, and dairy products.

Um, one of the outliers too that people don't often know is that you can buy seeds or starter plants to grow vegetables with your SNAP benefits.

If you're anything like me, I have a black thumb, wouldn't help.

Um, I also have a whole lot of shade, so I can't get tomatoes to grow in my yard, but it is a great thing to know about and to utilize if it works for your family.

There's a lot that SNAP benefits cannot be used to purchase.

Um, beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, or any tobacco.

Um, but also any non-food items like pets, uh pet food, soaps, paper products, um, sanitary products, a lot of things that you would want for folks to be able to access because it isn't food.

You also can't purchase any vitamins or over-the-counter medicines, and any food or hot meals that will be eaten out.

Um, I will get back to in a minute.

Uh, some changes to that that came within the last year here in Indiana.

Um, but the important piece for SNAP is that it seeks to mitigate hunger for low-income families, children, seniors, and whoosures of all demographics.

So there's not an age requirement.

Yeah, sir.

Could you incorporate if you didn't plan to already the ease of the application process and are you do you have to become recertified or go through a renewal process on a periodic basis?

Thank you.

That is very it's coming up next.

Yes, sir.

So when looking at eligibility, uh, there's a few things that are are looked at.

It's your household size, your income, some qualifying expenses, and assets.

Typically, for a family, um, they would go through that once a year with a six-month recertification.

We have a uh a program in Indiana called the Elderly Simplified Application Program.

Elderly for our purposes, I didn't name this, so it's please don't hold me accountable for this, but it's 60 and over, is what the federal government for SNAP considers elderly.

If you are in a household where it is only people who are 60 or over or someone with a disability, we have a 36 month certification window.

So you you know the notion is if you are in that demographic, your income is not shifting broadly, and so there's a 36 month period where you still have to check in, but you're not having to go through the full application process.

That is going to change because FSSA just got uh information within the last month from the USDA because we have changed who is required to participate in work reporting up to 64 years of age.

So the 60 to 64 um category, they will, if they have the ESAP designation, they will continue with that, and then once they reach the end of I think that time period, they will go to the standard 12 and six months.

Um for our purposes, a SNAP household are described as a group of people who live together and buy and share food together.

Every federal program has a different different definition of who you need to have to report in your household for and what you count towards them.

So that is very specifically what theirs are.

Um they do not have to be biologically related or legally connected via marriage, they just have to be a household that is is buying and preparing food together.

Uh you can have some special situations if you've got roommates and you know, if you have a roommate and you're buying and preparing your food, they're buying and preparing theirs.

That's two separate households.

Um folks with uh disabled individuals and their caretakers, there's some special situations around that as well.

Um married couples must apply together.

Seniors who buy and prepare food with others because they're unable to live alone.

There's a separate budget test for seniors and folks with disabilities.

Um, and so there's a slightly different way to calculate that, as well as children under 22 and living with their parents must apply with their parents.

So the next piece is looking at the household income.

Um income includes money from employment and as well as unearned income, social security, child support, things like that.

Um there's a gross income test where for general households they start at you must qualify and be under 130% of poverty, and then you must at net be under a hundred percent of the federal poverty level.

I mentioned it's slightly different for folks who are elderly or disabled, they only need to meet the net test, um, and they're able to calculate in medical expenses.

It's important to know that income limits do vary by household size, so you're looking at a different number for each.

Um really quickly.

Uh just really quickly.

So the poverty level is I can tell you what the poverty level at 130% is.

Okay.

Let me bake that in for you.

Yes.

So uh for a family of four.

We're so 130 is the poverty level that's set, and then we take the 130% of that, right?

So a family of four is an annual income of 41,796, which is we they report it, it's a monthly calculation, so that would be $3,483 monthly for a family of four.

Um, those numbers are adjusted every year because the federal poverty guidelines are adjusted every year as well.

So you just poverty level for a family of four is 31,200, and for an individual it's 16,000 and some.

So a very low bar.

Yes.

And if you ever have the opportunity, have someone come in and explain how the poverty level is set.

It is a fascinating mathematical process that doesn't really at all look to represent what the actual poverty level is, it's just a measure.

It's a baseline for you.

Yeah.

Um, so that's what they're looking at income-wise, at least from the gross income test.

Um you can include qualifying expenses, whether it's dependent care costs, business costs, child support payments, medical expenses, things like that that are calculated in to get to the net income level.

One thing that's changed recently, there is there is an asset.

Yes, sir.

I'm sorry.

So I I'm just curious.

So is this all self-certified or are they accessing treasury records to verify tax information?

I mean, how do you question?

I'm just curious.

Yeah, a lot of the data is easily data matched.

Um, if if you're employed and you're not self-employed, or you're not a gig economy worker, that's all coming through.

Um if you're on social security or disability, that's really easy to get.

The hardest part for folks to verify is um is their employment and their income, because if it's not data matched, then the families are reporting it and they're providing documentation.

Um our members who do some snap outreach and and do application assistance, work with folks.

When you'll get to this part, I guess, but you there's an interview that you go through after you've submitted all your data, you're submitting the data in an online form or a paper form or in the office, although usually it's online, and then when you go to the interview, they say, okay, be prepared to have documentation for these things.

There's a handful of things that have occasionally been self-attested, but generally speaking, if we're looking at income, it is not.

And so there's documentation that folks have to provide.

The flip side of that is sometimes that can be difficult.

Um, you know, if you closed a, I was hearing a story from someone last week, they closed a bank account last year, and then they're asking for the information about the bank account that they closed last year, right?

So it's it's the data matching part is difficult.

The state does a good job using the resources available to them.

That's assuming they're accurate, that's assuming things haven't changed, they're recent, things like that.

Um, but there is a lot of documentation that happens for families going into this program.

Did you have another question, ma'am?

Okay, sorry, your microphone was on.

I wanted to check.

I have a question.

Yes, sir.

Maybe obvious, but I'll have to ask it because this occurred to me.

If I receive SNAP benefits, do those get calculated as part of my adjusted gross income such that it might affect my eligibility the next renewal period.

It should not, no.

Not definitely for SNAP, it does not.

It typically doesn't apply for other programs either, um, which is a great question because that would that would make a difference, you're right.

Um looking at assets, you know, resources that household has available.

We're not necessarily, if you've read the Alice report, you know, we're not talking about folks having stocks bonds, you know, uh money market accounts, things like that.

What we're typically looking at really is just their checking account, their savings account, their cash.

Um, Indiana has for the last almost decade had a higher than the federal minimum asset test.

We worked on this to get this legislation passed because it had to come from the well, it did not have to, but it we were we worked with the legislature to get that up to to a higher limit with the notion that if you've read the Alice report, you want people to be able to save, right?

If you don't have a rainy day fund and your car breaks down, you have a medical expense, you know, many families are one incident away from needing assistance.

Uh the General Assembly this year took away the state's the state agency's capacity to raise the asset limit.

And so we are going back to the federal minimum, which is $3,000 for a household.

Uh, for a household with seniors or someone with this with a disability, it's 4,500.

That is new as of July 1.

Uh, and working with FSSA prior to that law taking effect, their intention was to reach out to everybody who would be over the asset limit by July 1 to provide them with an opportunity to give them any updates should they continue to be eligible by having less resources or less assets rather than what they reported when they applied initially.

Um it's a policy that we disagree with because we think it's it's not providing families an opportunity to have that extra amount of savings, which is exactly what we would want them to do.

Um citizenship is something that I get asked quite a bit, and and who is eligible.

A lot of this change through the one big beautiful bill last year.

Um at the baseline, natural-born citizens are eligible.

Naturalized citizens are someone with a legal permanent resident after a five-year waiting period for an adult, uh, they are eligible.

Anyone 18 or I'm sorry, anyone under 18 with legal permanent residence or a green card is is automatically eligible.

We've got the policy that we want to make sure children are accessing benefits when they're able.

Um at this point, the only immigrants who are eligible for benefits are Cuban Haitian entrants, which is a very small number of people that I'm honestly not sure there's anyone in Indiana that meets that standard.

It's from a treaty from about 1980.

Um, and then individuals under the compact of free association or COFA nations.

Um COFA nations are folks from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Polo.

Um, three groups of islands in the Pacific.

Um the short history lesson is this is these are places where we tested nuclear weapons in the the 40s and 50s.

And so if those individuals come to our country, we provide them with benefits.

Those who are not now eligible include essentially any refugee class you can come up with.

So we're seeing now there's been litigation on whether they could remove the refugee status for Haitian Creole, for Afghan refugees, for Burmese refugees.

But they removed their eligibility in the SNAP program last fall.

We think that was about 7,000 individuals in Indiana before that happened.

It's pretty difficult to track.

I would add folks replying and in the program have rights to language access.

So that's the sort of general eligibility.

And then the other thing that has been changed up quite a few times in the last couple of years are time limits.

Traditionally, if you were what they called an able-bodied adult without dependents, our lovely acronym for it is ABODS.

I don't know why, someone came up with that.

Other states refer to them as time-limited individuals.

It has traditionally been a much younger group that we have been looking at.

It is now, after the One Big Beautiful Bill, individuals 18 to 64 who, if they don't have a dependent, which we now consider to be someone under 14, it used to be someone under 18.

I can, with my little personal editorial, I have a 15 year old.

It didn't get any better when he turned 14.

So the responsibilities don't change.

But and we're not talking about a significant number of people because as I mentioned, most folks who can work do.

But for folks who are designated an able-bodied adult without a dependent, they must work or volunteer 20 hours a week or participate in employment and training activities, which in Indiana is our impact program, 20 hours per week.

And they are limited to three months of SNAP over a three-year period unless they comply with all of this, not just the compliance but the reporting.

There are some exemptions, folks who are pregnant, again, children under 18.

There were exemptions that the federal government put in place in 2024 and took back out in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included veterans, folks who are unhoused, and people who were formerly in foster care.

This I think is a population that we're going to see that we have seen folks fall off of the program.

I don't have the data as to why folks are being denied in the significant drop we've seen in SNAP enrollment in the last six months.

I would surmise it's not because they've all gotten better jobs with more pay and are no longer eligible.

I do believe there are folks who are falling off because they're not meeting the paperwork requirements, the reporting requirements, or perhaps the compliance.

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana is one of them.

Eskenazi Health also does application assistance.

And in these cases, they're able to work with individuals directly to help them submit not just the application, but the paperwork, the attestations, the documentation that goes with it.

So the One Big Beautiful Bill changed a lot of things.

One thing that I didn't mention is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was requiring states to have cost shares for the SNAP program.

Something that we'll be talking to our legislators about, what we're talking to your legislators about, and have been, frankly, for the better part of a year.

The first piece that will hit is the cost share for the administration of the program has always been a 50-50 split.

And starting this October, that will become a 75% state pay, 25% federal pay.

Because the state fiscal year and the federal fiscal year don't line up exactly.

I think we're looking at about 37 million dollars this state fiscal year, and it'll be all things being equal to enrollment and cost now, about 45 to 47 million dollars a year that the state will have to find going forward when the General Assembly comes in for the budget next year.

The harder piece is that starting next October, states now have a benefit cost share.

And the beauty of that is because it's a federal program.

So I grew up in Southwest Indiana.

If you're on SNAP where I grew up, and the best prices you can get, and it's easy for you to get to, and you go to Owensboro, the program works, right?

It's a federal program.

Having states pay part of the benefits has never been part of the process.

They've also provided in the One Big Beautiful bill a sliding scale at which percentage states will pay.

Indiana right now is in the 8 to 10% bracket of the grade that they're being given for something called payment error rate, which is an entirely different presentation.

Something I never thought I would be talking about with elected officials in this space because it's into the quality control mechanisms and the measurements that they use on the back end.

The very short answer is it is the overpayment and underpayment of benefits because someone made a mistake, either the state or the household.

Indiana's payment error rate is um I can't remember what the lot it was 9.52 the year before, I think it's 9.77, but we're still in that same bracket.

And at in that bracket, the percentage that the state will be needing to pay is an estimated 139 million dollars a year.

Um if you get the payment error rate, yes, sir.

Five minutes, yeah, almost there.

Um if you get the you know, if you get your payment error rate under 6%, there's no cost share.

If you're over, I think 15, there you get a delay.

Um we've called that the Kodiak carve out because that came because the state of Alaska has a very high payment error rate.

They have many other administrative issues going on with their program.

Um there's it it's all over the place as far as to what states will be paying, but that's something that states have never paid before.

Um there's a couple of administrator, I'm sorry, of immigration changes.

Um there's some really great information from the Indiana Justice Project.

This is new, and this also took effect July 1.

Um, it includes Medicaid as well, not my area of expertise, but generally speaking, for a family applying for SNAP, if someone is not an eligible person, and that can be many things.

They could have an a program violation and they're currently ineligible, they could have a legal permanent residence, but they haven't met the five-year bar, they could be one of those refugee categories who are no longer eligible, um, or they could be undocumented.

It could be any number of things.

In prior to July 1, when that household applied, you had to include a household person, right?

But you didn't have to include any additional information for them because they weren't applying.

And then the benefits were calculated, sort of carving out that person.

Um Senate Enrolled Act 1 that the Indiana General Assembly passed this year will now require applicant all applicants in a household to include their information and their immigration status of everyone in the household, even for someone who is not applying.

And if the state is unable to verify their citizenship or their immigration status, they are sending that information to the U.S.

Department of Agriculture.

Um for Medicaid, they're sending those same folks to the Department of Homeland Security.

Um, so that is new.

Um, it is certainly of a strong variable for families in those situations to think very seriously about applying and putting family members at risk.

Um the other thing that I would point out too, and you've probably heard some about this, and there's been it's been in the news recently, Indiana is one of the 23 states with an executive order and a waiver for what we call smart SNAP.

So I told you what you can and can't buy with SNAP at the beginning, right?

What's changed is that in Indiana, you can no longer buy candy or sugary drinks.

Um that list is different in every state.

What they have carved out is different in every state.

It's been an interesting process because there's been litigation in five states that does not incorporate Indiana, and we are not part of that process, where uh federal judges have said that the USDA didn't have the authority to change what food is because Congress determined that, and they also didn't go through the proper administrative process to make these rules.

Um in Indiana, it's still in effect for the time being.

It's honestly been more complicated, I think, on the retail end in compliance, particularly for small retailers, but you know, the reality is it's it's making value judgments and and decisions on behalf of families who may have very, you know, may have medical reasons to purchase things if someone is diabetic and something that they need to have is something that they can no longer buy.

Um, but also just the dignity and the choice.

There's no data out there that shows that SNAP recipients shop any differently than everybody else does when you look at what's in their cart.

So that's been something that we have looked at and are continuing to follow.

That's really deep and way detailed.

So I appreciate all of your questions and your kind attention this morning.

Oh no, it was great.

Uh Emily, thank you so much.

I do want to pause just to see if we have a couple of questions.

Um anyone have anything that they want clarified.

Just have a quick question.

The certification process, can you give kind of a ballpark of how long that takes to complete that?

Yeah, so when an and when an applicant applies, um, unless they are determined to have essentially zero income on their expedited case, there's a 30-day window once they've started the clock for the state to give them an answer as to whether they are eligible and if they are eligible, what their benefit level is.

So there's there's a clock, and the feds measure that as well.

That's talking about their timeliness.

Um if an individual is denied benefits, they will get a letter and it will tell them why they are denied and they have an appeals process.

There is due process for all of this.

Um it should not take more than 30 days to get through the process.

There are outliers if if the state's waiting on something from the household, um, you know, there's there's different ways they can happen.

There's also an interview that falls into that as well, but generally 30 days.

So, you know, what we talk about from the charitable sector is if someone has an emergency today, something happens where they no longer have access to the resources for food, unless they have absolutely zero income, they're still waiting 30 days for benefits.

So, even in a perfect world where all the federal benefits worked exactly as they should, and people who need help are able to access them.

Someone's always going to have an emergency that day, so the charitable sector is always going to be there.

Um but we also see that for folks or even who are on SNAP benefits, the most recent data we have is the benefits last them at best three weeks of the month.

And so many of the folks who are visiting food banks and pantries are also using that program, are using free and reduced lunch or using summer meals or using WIC to provide additional food for their households.

All right.

Um two things, Emily.

Um, could you, when you get your new data, could you connect with Sheila in the mayor's office, um, trade uh contact and um you know any data you want to update us on, that would be great.

But specifically, I would like to know what the new data is on the household uh receiving SNAP specifically in Carmel.

If you can um idea, you know, we we throw around a number up here, but if you have um current information, I'd love to have that.

The other thing that that uh caught my attention, Amanda, it would seem to me that if a part of our grant is on uh communication and marketing of the SNAP program and a navigator.

I'm wondering if we need to connect with Emily on maybe some language or how we might deal with those who might be fearful of applying because of the new immigration uh things that I heard you mention.

So you know, not that I want to do anything I shouldn't be doing, but I'd like to maybe address if we see that as something that could be happening now, then maybe we can address that and make our grant a little bit stronger.

Yes, and my intention, not knowing what I was walking into here is I'm gonna follow up with Sheila.

There's documents that I have that are that deal with that particular part.

There's a document um that talks about what changed from the one big beautiful bill and from Sending A Ruled Act One, um, as well as where to find the data points that I have shared.

I'm gonna send all of that to Sheila.

It's not all from me, it's from partner organizations, but it's really great information to have so that you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Excellent.

Okay, I'm gonna move on because I don't want to uh shortchange our other presenters.

So next up is uh Trisha Hudson, executive director uh and CEO of Meals on Wheels of Hamilton County.

Now, uh Trisha, you are relatively new due to retirement, uh long time executive director preceding you.

So welcome.

Thank you for getting up at this early hour and joining us this morning.

And um please fill us in on Meals on Wheels, a great program.

And we'll make sure that you're connected here.

George, yep, there we go.

All right.

Good morning.

Thank you for having me, Tricia Hudson from Meals on Wheels of Hamilton County.

And um I am not as much of a subject matter expert as as Emily, but I will share with you what we do at Meals on Wheels.

Um I have followed um Beth Gelhausen, who was uh the CEO of Meals on Wheels for 15 years, and she recently retired.

Um I stepped into the role in May of this year, so I'm two months in.

So I am still learning a lot about uh the subject as well.

Um so I want to share with you a little bit about what we do.

Our mission.

Meals on Wheels of Hamilton County supports homebound seniors and adults with disabilities by delivering nutritious dietary specific meals, reducing hunger, improving health, and promoting independence.

And they recognized that there was a growing need in Hamilton County and started out with 20 clients monthly with one meal provider, which was Riverview Hospital.

Where we are now, we serve 6,050 meals monthly to 150 clients.

We have 20 routes, all delivered by volunteer drivers.

We have three meal providers.

We added St.

Vincent Carmel as well as Riverview Hospital, and we also use a trio senior meals.

And those are our frozen meals that we deliver.

Then they project that age group, 65 plus in 2030 will be 76, 11.

And by 2050 will be 105,000, and that's the low projection.

Most of our clients are either widowed, single, live alone, and are not able to provide or to do their own meals.

So the need is there are nearly 21,000 residents in Hamilton County are food insecure, representing about 6% of the total population of Hamilton County.

While Hamilton County has a lower rate of food insecurity than the state as a whole, it's food insecure households may lack access to SNAP retail locations and food pantries as Emily brought up.

Okay.

So the poverty rate in Indiana is currently at 4.8% in general, but the poverty rate for 65 plus is 7%.

So it's quite a bit more of our population than our seniors are food insecure.

So the way that we operate, our funding comes from clients who can pay donations.

We have a sponsor meal program, our SAM program, and grants.

So currently our hot meals through all three of our providers we charge $650 a meal, which is the actual cost from the from Riverview Hospital that I have been told is $5.30, $5.35.

And we charge $6.50.

So there's not a lot of markup on that.

So to qualify to receive meals, you must be a Hamilton County resident.

And actually, we you'll see in a graph that is coming up.

We actually have expanded into Madison County as well because there is no Meals on Wheels in Madison County.

You have to be unable to prepare your own meals.

And it can be short or long term.

So we do have some clients who are not seniors who are recovering from surgery, coming out of rehab, things like that, or their caregiver is away and not able to help them.

No referral is needed.

So when our clients get started, we do have an online application.

However, our seniors many times are not able, don't have a computer, not able to do that, so they can call and we can take their application over the phone.

Then what happens is we we collect their information and then we send their primary physician what's called a dietary script, and that gives the physician an opportunity to be able to tell us if they need dietary specific meals.

So that information gets communicated to our meal providers.

So you can we we have basically four different options for meals.

We have the regular meal option.

So that the we get the dietary script back from their physician.

So within three to four days from the start of their application, we can get them on the meal program and get meals delivered to them.

Three meal options.

We have the hot meal, which is delivered at lunchtime, and then they get they can also get a sack lunch.

Well, it's basically for it's a sandwich and vegetable that they can get for a dinner meal.

And then we also have the frozen meals option, which I mentioned previously, and those get delivered once a week on Fridays, so that can carry them through the weekend.

You can see that our largest group, I need my glasses.

Under 60 is about 20.

And so you can see the breakdown there.

But Carmel is second, and followed by Fishers, and then we we pretty much have clients in every city and town in Hamilton County.

Well, we utilize let me just ask a question.

Um if you could go back to that slide.

So the number of clients served in Carmel is how many?

Um it was, I don't know how to go back.

Oh, and if you can't go back, I mean it's 20, but is that 20 on a regular basis?

Um we are constantly adding new clients all the time, so that chart changes weekly.

Okay.

So yeah, right now there's 20 clients in Carmel.

Okay, got it right.

I just wanted to clarify what that meant.

Thank you.

And can I ask, is there more demand than what you are serving?

There is more demand.

Um we we um honestly, we've been at roughly 150 clients for the last several years, and our limitations are our meal providers.

So I had a meeting with the dietary services at Riverview Hospital last week, and they informed me that they could potentially uh serve another 40 clients out of out of that facility.

So if we can grow, and we're we are adding new clients every week.

In fact, we I think in the month of June we added 23 new clients.

So is that true for Carmel specifically?

Yes.

Demands increasing.

Yeah, so our volunteers we need 90 volunteers every single week, um 360 uh a month.

So we have 340 active volunteers at this time.

And they donate their own time, their vehicle, their gas.

I wanted to throw this in just because this warms my heart.

This was a testimony that I I read.

He's not too fond of them.

And the drivers are very nice.

My brother and sister and I want to thank you for offering such a service, and we'll spread the good news about your service to anyone we can.

So we can see by testimony that this is helping our seniors in their nutrition and their health.

These are ways that we talk about how individuals in Hamilton County can help.

Donate to the sponsor meal program.

Also help and identify identify and refer individuals who need help.

So we distribute flyers at hospitals, doctor's offices, anywhere there might be people that need our help.

Volunteering to drive and also state planning.

We talk to individuals about including Meals on Wheels in their state plan.

And that's all I have for you.

Do you have any questions?

So good, yeah.

Just very briefly, what's the average volunteer driver experience?

So they go to Riverview and pick up X number of meals and then they sort of do their route and is that how that goes?

We have we we have a van that we drive and pick up the meals from the hospital.

And the day before the hospital gets our list of all of our clients, what their dietary needs are.

They they prepare all the meals, package them, and put them in in coolers, and we drive the van over, uh pick up all the food there, bring it back to the Meals on Wheels office, which is right next door to Riverview Hospital, and the volunteer drivers meet us there in our parking lot, and those coolers are distributed by route number.

They know their route number, they know every they have a route sheet, and they know where to go on that route sheet, and every meal is in organized in the coolers by the delivery schedule.

So they come and pick those up and they're on their way.

And so usually between 11, uh they they start at 11, they wrap up around one.

They have eight, eight to eleven, I think eleven is the most stops on a route.

Um eight to eleven stops.

Monica excuse me, you answered part of my question.

Um do you have so I kind of have two, but do you have to deny people base?

You you said that your capability was based on your providers, so do you have to deny people access to the program?

Um we have not as of yet.

Um we at the rate that we are adding new clients, that is a possibility in the future.

Okay, and then the second part is you mentioned the providers, but then you're just really talking about Riverview Hospital.

So are they your only provider, your main provider?

Um they are main provider.

Um we also um get meals um out of St.

Vincent Carmel.

So and then our frozen meals come from uh Trio senior meals.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else have questions?

Um I'm curious, and maybe you don't know because of your tenure there, but how long has the price been at six dollars and fifty cents?

I wondered if you are seeing if the hospital is seeing the squeeze of food price or food costs going up.

Yes.

Um in fact, that was part of our meeting last week.

Um their food prices are increasing.

They've done what they can to decrease cost.

Um we unfortunately for our clients, they're getting a lot more chicken instead of beef, you know, because of the cost.

But they are doing they're doing their best to keep the cost down.

But costs for protein especially are increasing.

And we are we are going to see starting in 2027, they are going to increase our cost, which depending on grants, you know, that kind of funding, we may have to increase our charge to the clients.

Okay.

Yeah, have you been told yet what your price will go to?

It's increasing $2 a meal.

Two dollars?

$2 a meal.

So it'll go to seven something, $7.35 or whatever that was.

Yeah, $7.35.

Yes.

That's pretty good.

That's a huge increase.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Can I ask?

Can I ask how do the client pay?

Do they pay up front?

Do you pay in arrears?

I'm just curious how that works on a monthly, or is it a weekly, or how does that work and how does your organization and we just get grant funding?

How do you deal with deficits on your margin?

Yeah, we we bill in arrears, so for the month of June, we just sent out the June invoices for the private pay clients and the Medicaid waiver, things like that.

So all of their meals for June, they'll be invoiced for at the beginning of July.

So that's how that works.

And then they have not done in the past.

My background is as a CFO, and uh they have not done a very good job at follow-up on accounts receivable.

So we have been operating at a deficit.

So we'll be changing that a little bit.

All right.

Um and uh Riverview is our county hospital.

I want to give them a big shout out as well as uh St.

Vincent Carmel, you know, because obviously without them, this would be a very difficult program to pull off.

So very good.

Thank you so much, Tricia Hudson, for um coming this morning and filling us in on meals and wheels.

So I saw a couple of action items that we could do to help you get the word out.

Uh you need drivers, all that kind of stuff.

That'll be in our our notes and probably our report, as well as listing you as a contact or you know, uh as far as making that connection to any of our seniors who may be looking for help.

So thank you very much and congratulations on your new position.

Thank you.

All right, I'm gonna move really quickly into Sloan Thompson, ex executive director of Prime Life Enrichment, also uh new, relatively new to the position because of retirement.

So uh congratulations, Sloan, on your um your new position and uh definitely Prime Life, a great friend to uh Carmel and to our residents here.

So take it away.

Great, thank you so much.

I'm really happy to be here this morning, and um yeah, glad for that acknowledgement of when you're when you're in a new role and you you do learn quickly.

Um I just celebrated my six month anniversary, so that does give you the context.

Um I have been a resident of Carmel, well, Carmel Westfield.

I've been on the 146th North Side border the entire time I've lived here since 2003.

Um, but again, just six months here at Prime Life.

Um what I have for you, you each I think had a handout at your um place.

I thought that might be easier than um a presentation for what I wanted to share with you.

Um I'm starting on this side.

I originally had thought I would um start on the other side because it's all focused on the the food, and I know that's your focus, but to give the context like others have for um who we are.

Actually, if you don't mind, I'd love to see by hands how many of you already at least know a little bit about prime life.

I was guessing I might see almost every hand, so that's wonderful.

Even though we still are told sometimes that we're the best kept secret, um, we are turning 50 next year on April 1st.

Um we have been in Carmel for the location that we're at on Third Avenue, which is right near here, just down from the palladium and next to the ice scadium.

We have been there for about 15 years.

I'm actually kind of struggling to find some of the exact data of exactly where we were.

Um I did I have our articles of incorporation.

So April 1, 1977 for sure, is when we were formed.

Um you can see our mission and vision statement there.

I'm not gonna read those to you, I know and in the interest of time, but we are a 20,000 square foot facility that I call a wellness center for folks over um 50.

And we certainly are as been mentioned here this morning.

We're really as we look ahead.

We're really, as we look ahead, again, we've been here for 50 years in Hamilton County, but the generations are changing, and to serve those generations well, that's part of what our visioning is for the next 20 plus years.

But we will continue, I think our main focus on is on wellness.

You see in our mission statement, clinical and social determinants of health.

So if you know the wellness wheel, you've got physical, emotional, social, mental, intellectual, those all fit under what we do.

And that's what you see in the bottom half of this.

Every week we have more than 50 clubs and activities and 45 fitness classes.

I have for you, I can show this just briefly, and there are copies for you here and out front.

This would give you a sense of our, these are our fitness classes, and here's our monthly calendar.

We do a monthly newsletter, and these so you can see this is regular.

That's not you know just unique.

We are always doing that.

We have aquatics and land fitness, and that very much is helpful for us as we age.

Our bones do change, and our 88 to 89 degree pool is very helpful for when you're doing fitness and our fitness orientations that every member goes through if they want to use any of the facilities.

Our basic membership gives you access to all those clubs and activities, but also our indoor track and that um and a fitness room.

So even if you're at the very basic level and you're not doing any of those fitness classes, we do a fitness orientation so that someone can help you really use those the equipment well.

The equipment was donated by St.

Vincent, and it is actually a little different than you find in other facilities because again it's it's designed for our our bodies as they're older.

It's very similar when you see it, it's got a lot of the same machines, but there are some different mechanisms there that reflect that.

Um I know I need to I want to get to food, but I will what I have recently done, and I um my staff said they thought it was great, and that little section there about those clubs and activities and the basic membership and enhanced membership, those are paid memberships.

Um the cost has been $20.40 a month, it's going up August 1st to 25 and $50 a month.

We have not raised our prices since January of 2019, and we are reflecting the increased costs and things, and we have been told by many of our members you should have done this a while ago.

This is uh still a great bargain.

Um if people have insurance benefits like Silver Sneakers Renew Active, that actually covers the cost of the basic membership, even when we increase that cost.

That's not going to change.

Um and we do offer our basic membership to veterans at no cost, and so that is something.

But what you see just below that membership information is everything on that list, daily hot lunches, which we're gonna talk about here in a moment, our Wednesday lunch and learn sessions, SHIP Medicare Counseling, Sokoa Community Health Worker Assistance, a social worker who helps connect people to things that they need.

Our AARP Senior Planet Lectures and Workshops, we are one of the only licensed AARP senior planet centers in the in the state.

Um then our transportation program for essential services, which includes going to the grocery or food pantries and to medical appointments and then to prime life, all of those are free, and all of those are free to anyone.

You do not have to be a member.

Um typically then that means age 55 and above.

In some cases, there are exceptions, but that's mostly who we're serving.

But all of that you can come in in our office and get access to any of that without being a member.

And so I'm gonna flip this over to the other side where you all see it because this is information about the food access that we offer.

Um you can see up on this top half, we have meals that are provided by Sokoa three days a week.

There's also a SAC lunch.

The meals provided by Sokoa, there is a suggested donation of $3, and that money passes through us and goes back to Sokoa.

But no one is turned away.

If you aren't able to pay that, you just get your meal.

Um, and the SAC lunch is free.

That's for members and guests.

So again, anybody whose age SICCOA does have a rule of 60 or above, and they have a small registration form.

That's how data is collected, and that the age is there.

But once you're you're there, you can come as often as you like.

Um, and so that's Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Second Helpings is our partner.

And so we get all of that food at no cost to us.

And in most cases, people are eating all of those hot meals for free.

We do have donors, partners who donate salads.

Wellbrook of Carmel actually brings salads every week so that we can complement the foods that are coming from our other two providers.

Dressings are provided by a wholesaler, and they're un you know, they're sealed, brand new, not expired.

Those are our what we have for salads.

Just recently, Bagel Fair and Nora, one of our fitness instructors actually went stopped by Bagel Fair, and they now are twice a week.

She's bringing bagels from there, just dozens of them, and people love that.

We did partner with Purdue last year, and we hope to do that again this year, where a dietitian came and taught classes and cooking classes for our members.

Divi, if you know that restaurant right here, they have been a wonderful partner.

Last year they devote donated 70 to 90 meals month.

They did it actually twice a month last year.

This year they're doing just once a month, but that still is on the same day that our members are coming in eating a hot lunch, they can walk away with it's it's got a lot in it.

It's a sandwich, it's got fruit, it's got a cheese stick, it's got a hard-boiled egg, it has chips in it.

It for many of our members say it's like two meals.

Um, and some of them even pick up two of those to bring that home to someone else who's there with them.

Um those are provided, and if we if the 70 or 90 that we get on a given day are not taken at the very end of the day, those meals are actually taken over to Carmel Christian Church and donated, or sometimes to another church.

And I know you've got someone right here up on your commission that we actually bring things to when we have extra.

We're very sad that an amazing program that was sponsored by Anthem for the last three years, and Prime Life was one of the first partners in that program with Sokoa, was called Produce for Better Health, and they were large boxes of amazing fresh produce twice a month.

Anthem decided not to renew that, so Sokoa is still looking for a new partner for that, and they are hopeful that maybe by the end of the year we'll have that.

Um but we had uh 90 or so folks getting, and they were not always members, they could they could just sign up for this program and then they would stop by Prime Life to pick up that produce box.

So that has all funneled through our um through our center, and um every day there's coffee, water, and snacks that are also donated that are available just as people are spending their day with us or have whatever part of their day.

In the bottom half, you can see then last year the um for the whole year the secoa meals that we served were 6,240.

Second helpings was 4,160.

We had 72 unique people participate in the dietitian classes.

Uh we uh distributed 3,432 produce boxes, and then um a thousand and eighty Divi lunches, um, Divi meals last year.

And for this six months, um you can see we're actually uh doing more Sokoa meals, um more second helping meals.

We're we're ahead of where we were, we're serving more people.

Um we're still in conversation with me being so new.

I just learned that we did the dietitian classes yesterday.

So I said, are we gonna do that again?

And she said yes.

We are, I will tell you, we are down probably I would say at least five staff positions from where we had been a couple years ago.

Um we were when I stepped in in January, we were probably down three of those, and I've had a retirement, and um we did do a reduction in force for a position that while it's one that I would love to have, and we do think in the future would be beneficial, it's not as necessary right now for our operations.

So I do have some grants that I have already written and ones on the horizon to fill in some positions like an activities coordinator, a volunteer coordinator.

We have over a hundred volunteers a year, and we currently have staff who have you know whose roles work with a certain group of volunteers helping with that, but everybody's stretched pretty thin without those roles.

So those 50 activities we have members who lead themselves.

Um I don't know if I should quite say this, but my staff has been saying our are um we've got a little bit of rogue volunteers going on because they're filling in the gap where we didn't have that volunteer coordinator, a staff person.

It's wonderful in the sense that they've been with us a long time and they serve some amazing roles, and they're stepping up to leadership, but sometimes making decisions without us knowing.

And so we we need some of the we need a little bit more staff so we can manage this amazing volunteer base that we have.

Um but yeah, I think I'm gonna stop there.

I hope that that's given you a good overview.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about what we do regarding food access as well as um just our center as a whole.

Sure, great job.

Um, any questions from the commission?

Jay?

No, no question, but this is almost too good to be true.

What's for lunch today?

I'm hungry.

You know, our secoa, we have a monthly uh menu that comes out, so we do know for the whole month ahead what those Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday meals are.

I didn't look because I was here so early.

So normally I'd look beforehand.

Um but we uh we typically have there's always um proteins on those.

So sometimes it's a nice piece of chicken with um vegetables and potatoes on the side or rice.

Sometimes it's more of a casserole kind of a dish with rice and tomato and you know chicken in it.

Um we did have an amazing salmon meal.

I will tell you it was to die for from secoa last year, or I mean last year.

I wasn't even there just a month, a couple of months ago.

So I'm not quite sure how they they manage that, but they they really are quite delicious.

Um, our second helpings meals are just we never know, but they come in big trays, and we have um a crew of volunteers who are surf safe certified.

Um I pay for that certification for them, and they um serve those meals so they're heating them and storing them correctly.

Um so yeah.

Yeah, I I can tell you I've been there for lunch, it's fabulous.

We'd love to have you come join us actually and then take a little tour, but absolutely um enjoy the company of the people there.

Great.

Um, if you you said you're down five staff members.

Um benefits, hourly rate, average head count per full equivalent.

What are you looking at?

50,000 a year, 40,000 a year per person to add a staff member.

Oh, to add a staff member?

To fill your the five that you're missing.

Yeah, so we have um our current staff of six or seven.

I don't know why I should be like knowing that, but I guess maybe because it's changed a little bit this year.

But we only have three full-time staff people right now, our transportation coordinator, myself, and a program manager.

I promoted her into that role from office manager so she can help do some of these things.

Everyone else is working typically, I would say 22 to less than 30 hours a week.

Um, those are a data specialist, a transportation assistant, senior driver.

Um we do have 15 part-time drivers, some who only drive one day, some who drive three or four days.

Our drivers are only paid 11 dollars and 33 cents an hour.

Most of them are not doing it for the money, though some do, those who drive more hours do um use that income very much so.

Um others might be paying their gas to get to us.

But our our salary, we are under there's a nonprofit salary survey that comes out in this area.

We are substantially below that.

I have my colleague at Shepherd Center who's not here today, they they partner so much with Meals on Wheels.

Um, but I was told that she was shocked at my salary.

She said, You are half what you should be paid currently.

And so a staff position that I need to hire, yes, is probably around that 50,000.

And we currently aren't offering benefits other than PTO and things, but we are a United Way accredited partner, and I'm really that is a very monumental thing.

We have access to so much that other nonprofits don't.

There are only four accredited partners in all of Hamilton County.

Um of the things that that's gonna let us do this year, though, is they have I forget the terminology, but it's a multi-employer kind of way to give um to access benefits, things like health care and things like that.

That that is going into effect January 1 of next year.

So this year for the first time, I will be able to offer that.

I don't know as a first-time organization, I'm not sure what our premiums are gonna be and if people can take advantage of it.

Um, a number of our staff actually uh are we've got a few under 50 and most over 55 or 60.

So some are already Medicaid and think Medicare, those are their insurance programs.

But I'm excited about the possibility.

So I know that was a long answer to that.

My brain spends a lot of time on this.

Sarah.

So in terms of access, there's a lot of opportunity.

How does the transportation element provide access to those individuals who may need it most?

But are they are you picking individuals up to bring them?

Are they you mentioned even taking groups to food pantries?

Do you have a schedule that they can provide a project and go or whenever they want?

Yeah, it's all on demand and person of person, like so each individual what they need.

Our transportation department creates a route daily, but it is not a designated route.

So yeah, we our current transportation coordinator has been there just a year.

He's very proud that when, as he should be, when he stepped in, there was a waiting list.

We have no waiting list.

You do need to sign up to be a part of the transportation program.

You must be a Hamilton County resident, but you don't have to be a member of Prime Life.

We need at least a week's notice and we get you signed up.

But then once you're on in our program, you can have scheduled pre-scheduled things.

We have people who are on dialysis and they go three days a week, that's already known, or various doctors' appointments like that.

But you also, once you're in the program, you can you know give a call just a couple days before.

And so those routes are done, they are created daily, which is very, very helpful for the need in our county.

Um I have put in a Hamilton County grant this year that includes a pilot for three small dedicated routes to practice some of that to partner with Shepherd Center for their Together Today program in Carmel, specifically to get to pick people up to get them to that and go on a designated route.

Um, and something that we have just started doing this month with Jewish Family Services, which is actually on the north side of Indy, but they lost a program that they were doing with Sokoa that was a transportation program for two neighborhoods that are low-income neighborhoods that had twice a month routes to grocery stores.

Um that program was lost, and they thought to call us.

And so, even though they're out of our county, we have the assets of those of our vehicles, and it is seniors, they are communities and seniors and have this need.

So we are now going to be their provider, and they in fact are they have a grant for this, so they will be paying us for that.

So it does cover our cost of the drivers and and things, but those are routes then.

So for three hours, they they cycle twice through a neighborhood and pick up um seven or eight people, get them to the grocery store, come get some others, pick up the ones that were there, and those are similar to um one of the other pilots that I have put into the Hamilton County grant.

So we want to try to do some of that because we know that that can be more efficient.

It's also what can help Hamilton County be ready to apply for federal funding that requires that you have dedicated routes and not the end of on-demand systems like our Hamilton County Express and what we do.

Any other yes, Cindy?

So to um you indicated that for transportation, you have to be a Hamilton County resident.

Is that true for all of the prime life enrichment services?

No.

So any anything else that we do if you um if you want to choose us and come, so we do have some Boone County, we have Northern Indiana or Northern in Indianapolis.

So, yeah, our prime life doesn't restrict you, but our transportation because um we currently don't charge for that.

So in the past, historically we have charged.

There have been different models we had, um, but then when we got Secoa Title III money for our transportation program, because it is an expensive program to run, um we are not allowed to charge.

We can take voluntary donations, which we do.

Um again, I guess I'm a pretty transparent person, so I'm gonna say this.

The the um Hamilton County grant that I wrote this year was for substantially more than we have received that will be for next year, but substantially more than we've received this year, it is less than we used to receive when we were doing half of the transportation that we currently do in that grant.

They would like us in my conversations with the commissioners, they would like us to be charging.

That makes sense.

And they'd like us to charge at least like the three dollars a ride, which is what Hamilton County Express charges, which does not cover the full cost of a ride, but at least you know it's part of that.

In order for me to do that, I have to have additional funding so that I don't need the Secoa transportation funds.

So the part of my grant when it says if you aren't fully funded, what will you do?

I thought I will need to apply for that funding, and I will not be able to charge.

So we you know we we handle that.

And then another question is um when you look at prime life enrichment, how many folks utilize the services in a given month?

You know, that's a great question, and we are about to um we're in the midst of a software transition because we've been doing I think an excellent job of tracking data in recent years, but we forced membership data into a donor data system, and so we actually are are going to have um better systems August 1.

Um I would say on any given day we have more than a hundred people in the center.

Um last year I just did a united way report.

We served 3,147 unique individuals, and the majority of the people who come to Prime Life are uh live in Carmel.

And you get this.

Which makes sense.

You you want to be within 15 minutes typically of where you're going if it's for like a workout kind of facility.

Very good.

Excellent report, and it is amazing what you accomplish and the services you're providing to our seniors.

So thank you very much for all the work you're doing, Salone.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for being here.

Again, thank you to all of our uh presenters today.

We just have one, and I'm running out of time, so uh we just have one uh piece of business that we need to uh conclude before the meeting comes to an end.

I'm going to introduce resolution number 2026-01.

This is a resolution of the mayor's advisory commission on food access establishing the policy by which members may participate by electronic means of communication.

This resolution adopts an electronic participation policy for commission meetings.

Uh, as I stated at the beginning, this is due to open, well, this is due to uh state statute and how uh we can attend meetings.

We believe that uh we have not been uh in any violation because we have not conducted any official business yet where there's been a vote.

So uh we want to get this on the books and make sure that we are legal.

Does anybody have any questions or any concerns?

Are you looking for a motion to approve?

So yeah, let me just see if we've got any questions or I was just gonna say, Jeff, I think just um for positive reinforcement of what's happening.

I I know I'm the bearer, a little bit of a barrier.

So I just say up front, we're asking people for being on these councils to better understand what our commitments are up front so that we can fully commit because I feel like I'm at a point where I need to make a decision best for you guys and for the overall um organization, but just to know like it's 7:30 every whatever, so I know way in advance to when I'm committed up front to like you and Mayor Finkel.

I just would as we look at other councils that are um asked uh voluntary councils, because I think you all know and people that are active with the city, but like for the rest of us, I've even heard from other commissioners that if we knew up front more about what the commitment is, that would be helpful going forward.

Good yeah, good comment, good comment.

We'll we'll uh take that under advisement.

Any other questions before we look for a motion?

Any anybody else have any concerns or any issues?

Okay, uh Jay.

Make a make a motion to approve resolution 2026-01.

All right, is there a second?

I'll second.

Very good.

Thank you for the second.

It's been uh properly moved and seconded.

Is there any additional uh discussion?

All right, we are going to have to do a roll call vote.

So uh could I get uh those voting in the affirmative?

Um I have here from Jay or Commissioner Druba.

If if you're for or against.

Four.

Okay.

Uh let's see.

I've got um that we want to do uh Commissioner Brandt.

Approved.

Commissioner Urick.

Approved.

Commissioner Glenn.

Four.

Commissioner Woods.

Four.

Commissioner Commissioner Mews.

Four.

Commissioner Hulse.

Four.

Okay.

And I will vote in the affirmative as well.

That motion carries with our members who are present.

So that is now official business.

Is there anything else to come before the commission today?

All right, thank you everyone for your attendance, and thank you again to our presenters.

This meeting is adjourned.