PLAINFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — The Indianapolis location for nonprofit Lifeline Christian Mission is bringing Hoosier hospitality to areas across the globe with high hunger and malnourishment. 

Lifeline Christian Mission ships was first founded forty years ago and keeps their Christian mission statement at the center of the work they do.

“To drive toward holistically healthy individuals and communities, we and our leaders focus on providing access to basic Christian education, increasing availability of affordable quality health care, expanding economic opportunities, and sharing God’s message of love and hope,” their site says.

In addition to their mission, their core values include: loving generously, creating possibilities, leading humbly, serving passionately, and igniting adventure.

As a part of that mission and those values, they ship meals to 11 different countries and many of those meals are packed at the Indianapolis centre.

“Some of them go locally and globally. They were in eastern Kentucky with the floods that took place,” Indianapolis centre director Danny Smith said. “Currently, they are in Ukraine with the Ukraine-Russian war.”

Smith says roughly 35,000 meals are shipped out of the centre, located in Plainfield, each month. 

Each one of the meals is carefully put together during “meal pack events.” 

Each event is customizable, and it is common for local businesses, schools, and churches to bring their teams out the the centre to pack meals. 

“It’s just a really cool way to get the guys interacting and give back to the community,” Director of Quality and Training at Miller Pipeline Jeremy White said. 

Events begin with a quick training session that covers the mission and specifics of the packing.

After training, every attendee suits up in a hair net and gets to work. 

Bags are filled with a nutrient dense recipe, one that is packed with protein and fulfills 75% of a child’s daily veggie needs. One bag contains six meals.

After each bag is packed, it is then loaded into a box. 36 bags fit into a box. The boxes are then placed on a pallet that holds 14,256 meals.

Finally, the boxes are stacked inside a massive shipping container. Each of the 40-foot shipping containers carries over 285,000 meals. 

The containers don’t just bring hope in the shape of a meal, though, they also bring business.

“Over a period of six to nine months, it gets converted to whatever is needed in the field,” Smith said. “It could become a health clinic, or a restaurant, or a coffee shop, or a dentist office or a woodworking shop.”

As the nonprofit works to continue spreading the light of Jesus, they encourage anyone to get involved by attending a meal packing event. For additional information, click here.

The attached video aired before the Indy Pride Parade kicked off at 10 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Thousands of people flooded Indianapolis’ downtown streets on Saturday for the annual Indy Pride Parade.

Indy Pride Leaders said about 30,000 people were expected to drop in the parade and the following festival at Military Park. They say it could be one of the largest parades they’ve ever had. 

Dan Scott, of Indianapolis, says seeing the support grow from the beginning to now is amazing. According to Indy Pride, the history of Pride in the city can be dated back to the 1980s.

“It’s really special because when I grew up, we didn’t have anything like this,” Scott said. “I started when it was (at Hilton on the Circle) with a few hundred people. Now we have thousands. It’s really touching to see all these people, it brings tears to my eyes, just to see all of this support.”

Saturday’s route stretched from the intersection of St. Clair Street and College Avenue, all the way to Military Park. Joy painted the faces of those watching the parade.

For Bedford, Indiana, native Teague Jones, he says Saturday’s parade is a special day. “I just love the equality and be able to be myself, see everybody smiling and having a good time,” Jones said.

Couple Jeff Fisher and Chris Finn-Fisher say the Pride Parade allows them to feel welcomed for who they truly are. 

“It actually feels like I belong,” Jeff said. “I mean, for years we always felt like outcasts, to be a part of this from my first Pride ever, I was in tears, sometimes, just knowing the love and support that I never knew is actually out there.”

His husband, Chris, agreed – Saturday was filled with emotions.

“It’s very welcoming, (but) it can be overwhelming. But it’s wonderful, it’s a great environment and it’s great to be with so many people who are of the same community,” he said.

Both Chris and Jeff say it’s something that they look forward to every single year. “I love the spectacle of it and all the energy. It’s just great to be around this much community. I look forward to it every year,” Chris added.

IndyPride festivities continue with a festival at Military Park from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Department of Public Works is seeking the public’s feedback on an upcoming project that will turn many one-way streets in downtown Indy into two-ways.

Citing data from the Federal Highway Administration, Indy DPW says the street conversions should help traffic flow, improve safety, boost connectivity, and enhance quality of life by “re-establishing a sense of place in neighborhoods have been divided by busy one-way thoroughfares.”

Below is a list of the streets DPW hopes to tackle in the project.

• Capitol Avenue from 21st to 38th streets
• Illinois Street from 21st to 38th streets
• Pennsylvania Street from I-65N to Fall Creek Parkway S Drive
• Delaware Street from I-65N to Fall Creek Parkway S Drive
• Alabama Street from Washington to Michigan streets
• New Jersey Street from Washington to Michigan streets
• East Street from Washington to 10th streets
• College Avenue from Virginia Avenue to Market Street

Brandon Herget, director of Indy DPW, said in a release on the project that the department’s engineers were still in the early design phase, but the conversions are “significant” in making neighborhood streets safer for everyone.

“Now is the right time for our community to provide input that will influence the designs of these projects, and ultimately, the future of their neighborhood streets,” he added.

Anyone interested in commenting on the upcoming conversions can submit their feedback here.

The conversions were not expected to begin until 2027.