Food banks deploy mobile distributions for locked-out refinery workers

Food Bank of Northwest Indiana and United Way Northwest Indiana moved mobile food bank distributions into the response for United Steelworkers members and their families after BP locked out workers at the Whiting refinery. United Steelworkers said nearly 1,000 workers were locked out on March 19, while local reporting put the number closer to 800 at United Steelworkers Local 7-1.

United Way Northwest Indiana said on May 29 that it was underwriting the cost of the mobile distributions and coordinating additional support services for affected households. That made the response more than a food handoff. The group’s Resource Navigator program was also part of the mix, connecting residents to food, housing, healthcare and financial assistance across Lake, Porter, Jasper, Newton and Starke counties.

The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana already had a weekly mobile-market operation on the road and a SNAP outreach program, which gave it a way to pivot quickly when the labor dispute hit. That matters in a lockout because the people showing up are not always the regular pantry crowd. They can be workers and family members who need groceries, infant formula and household basics immediately, before the next paycheck would have arrived.

BP said it would keep the Whiting refinery operating with trained company employees during the lockout. United Steelworkers later called BP’s move an unfair labor practice lockout in a June 9 statement, and BP’s June 10 employee bulletin said the company had discussed safe conduct and vehicle operations near the refinery and would review reports of picket-line misconduct.

The dispute has already rippled past the refinery gates in Whiting, a Lake County industrial city where BP is one of the major employers. The site also has labor history: United Steelworkers previously announced a 2015 unfair-labor-practice strike involving BP refineries in Whiting and Toledo, Ohio.

For food-recovery groups and their partners, the Whiting response showed how fast a steady-state network can become an emergency support system. Mobile distribution, labor contacts and local nonprofit coordination gave Northwest Indiana a way to keep food moving when wages stopped all at once.