West Indianapolis resident Mark Petrey, 46, has been homeless for the last four years, he said, due to a mix of poor choices made worse by bad luck.
He makes his home wherever he can, mainly along the banks of Eagle Creek. The hardest thing to do is find something to eat. When he does, he cooks it on a small wood-burning stove and washes his dishes in the creek.
“It’s a struggle out there,” he said. “I wouldn’t put this on anybody. I mean, it’s rough. You gotta be able to adapt and overcome and be able to withstand cold, withstand people taking from you. If you can do all that, you can make it.”
With nearly a foot of snow covering the ground everywhere but plowed streets, there’s slim pickings. Petrey relies on the only reliable source of food he knows about near him — the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center.
“They help the community out a lot. It’s a good thing for us, because being homeless, it’s hard to get stuff. They help out a lot,” he said.
For years, the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center has helped people from West Indianapolis and nearby communities get enough to eat via its makeshift pantry. Now, the facility has opened a dedicated pantry in order to provide more healthy food options and tap into new food funding sources to help residents.
“For decades, Mary Rigg has run a pantry out of our lobby area, and that really limited choice, and it really limited healthy options. We didn’t have refrigeration freezers or shelf stable storage,” said Mary Rigg president Heather Pease. “And so in this space, we’ve been able to bring together all of those things.”
The Mary Rigg Food Pantry
The Mary Rigg Food Pantry, 2102 W. Morris St., is located at the center of the West Indianapolis neighborhood at the intersection of West Morris Street and Belmont Avenue.
It’s a grocery-style pantry where people can walk through and select food.
Patrons check in with pantry staff, who help guide them through the various sections and let them know how many items they’re allowed to take.
Permanent shelving means staff can now store food instead of trying to give it all away in one day.
Refrigerators donated by the local nonprofit Hatch for Hunger lets them provide and store items like meat, milk and eggs.
Elanco Animal Health, which opened its new global headquarters in the neighborhood last October, donated a walk-in freezer. That allows them to freeze items for later distribution.
Pease said the new pantry also allows them to receive more significant donations from churches, schools and corporations when they hold food drives.
The new pantry has also merged with Billie’s Food Pantry, which allows it to receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Food Assistance Program and other government programs.
The efforts will go toward meeting an increasing need. According to Pease, the community need for the pantry is expanding every year, with a 17% increase in pantry participation between 2024 and 2025.
“It was all about the neighborhood and how we could serve it better,” Pease said. “In those tight quarters we had very limited opportunities to have fresh food and choice. We’re proud of our grit and making it work in that space, but when the stars aligned and we were able to do it in a better way for the neighborhood, we were thrilled to be able to do that.”
For Petrey, the chance to get some staples and a few treats is a lifesaver.
“Milk, eggs, meat, bread. They even give you clothes if you need it. The food’s good. Nothing’s ever bad or spoiled. It really helps when you ain’t got much,” he said.
Petrey, who is staying at the West Morris Free Methodist Church’s temporary shelter, said he is going to store his items in a tote and take it back to his camp once the weather warms up.
The first step away from poverty
The 3,200-square-foot building that is now the new pantry has had multiple purposes over the years. It’s been a Haag Drug store, Peoples Drug pharmacy and The Hope Chest thrift store. It was empty for several years and was acquired by the West Indianapolis Development Corp.
With the help of donations from PNC Bank, United Way of Central Indiana and others the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center was able to raise more than $850,000 to purchase the building and turn it into a pantry. It’s still $9,300 away from its final goal of $862,000.
Pease said the investment in the pantry, which is about a third of the center’s annual budget, gives people the security to seek other ways to better their situations.
“Our goal is distancing people from poverty. So how can we do that? We start with basic needs and food security, and we go from there,” she said. “Then, people can get enrolled in our youth programs, and they can get enrolled in our workforce services to help them with the next right step in their career journey.”
The pantry’s schedule
The pantry has no eligibility requirements, so it is open to everyone. Clients may only visit the pantry once a week. The pantry is open every Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m. and is open some Mondays in February. More dates will be added in March and April.
To see a full schedule, click here.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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