Community Kitchen in Bloomington’s goal is to help individuals gain regular access to an adequate diet.
The non-profit does so with two buildings and a food truck that travels around the county. Tim Clougher, the assistant director at Community Kitchen, said these food programs are designed to help anyone get a meal.
“A lot of people don't realize we do a lot for kids, particularly in the summer during the school year,” he said. “We do a Backpack Buddies program, and we provide meals for kids after school at like the Boys and Girls Club and The Rise and other places in Bloomington.”
During the summer, Community Kitchen also serves free lunches to at-risk kids who normally get free meals during the school year, but not in the off months.
“We have two routes that we go on going to 10 different neighborhoods,” he said. “We're at each spot for 20 to 30 minutes, and the kids just come out and hang out with us and eat a nutritious lunch.”
This year, Clougher said 30 percent more kids are being served through the program.
“Ultimately, I think that for a lot of families that have had their SNAP benefits and other things that have changed or been affected, that we're starting to see the results of that, which is more families more kids that are needing our support in the summer,” he said.
Those changes to SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, include increasing work requirements to be eligible for the program and removing the ability to purchase soft drinks or candy using benefits.
Indiana was the first state to remove sugary drinks and candy from the state’s SNAP program. In a tweet on May 23, Gov. Mike Braun said, “Indiana is proud to lead the way in the Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
And when Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah did the same thing in early June, Braun was there with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
“We spend way too much money trying to fix bad behavior,” Braun said at the press event in Washington, D.C. “And when I was able to give an executive order that says ‘we’re not spending government money in Indiana on sugary drinks and candy,’ what could make more common sense.”
Braun oversaw the cancellation of another program. Mark Lynch, the director of advocacy at Indy Hunger Network, said SUN Bucks used to give parents of those in need $120 a month, per child, to buy groceries during the summer.
Read more: Indiana still has funding for electric vehicle chargers while federal EV program is on hold
“The SUN Bucks program really worked well for urban, suburban and rural families, because it allowed them, instead of having to go to a meal site at a specified time, it allows them the flexibility to make it part of their normal shopping experience, whatever that looks like,” he said.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration missed the original program application deadline. It submitted a waiver in March to participate, but didn’t receive a response before the Braun administration saw that gaps in prior preparations prevented the implementation of the program in 2025.
About 660,000 Hoosier children were enrolled in the program last year. Indiana is one of 14 states not participating in the program this year, though it may participate in 2026.
“The Braun administration is saying that they are interested in next summer,” Lynch said. “But the Braun administration also believes that the Trump administration might do away with a program nationwide, so instead of 36 states participating next year, maybe wouldn't even be available to those.”
Lynch said that because the state didn’t participate in the $2.8 million SUN Bucks program, it may not be willing to pay for the even larger SNAP program. That could come with a $350 million total administrative cost for states if Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill passes as written.
“This is something where we're going to have hungry people in Indiana, if it passes the way it is,” he said.
For Clougher and others in the food assistance industry, the potential changes are not only scary by themselves, but they could signal even more changes ahead.
“It kind of feels like everything is at risk simply because we don't know what's going to happen or what's next,” Clougher said.
Community Kitchen funds its summer meal program through a combination of USDA assistance and community support. Clougher said if that federal funding disappears, Community Kitchen will have to adjust how it provides free food for children in the summer.
