Abigail Youmans and Sara Clifford, Brown County Democrat
When local food aid groups started working together last year to offer pop-up food pantries, they were seeing an average of 120 families visit each one through the first six months of the program.
Lately, demand has been a little over half of that.
At a May distribution, St. Vincent De Paul, Brown County Community Organizations Active in a Disaster (COAD) and the Northern Brown County Food Alliance (NBCFA) and other partners had boxes packed for 120, but their initial distribution was only 77.
Still, “they are very appreciative,” said Kim Robinson, COAD leader and YMCA executive director, about the drivers who line up to get fresh produce and food staples.
The remainder of the food was made available out of the back of a truck in the Brown County YMCA parking lot to residents of Willow Manor and Hawthorne Hills senior apartments and anyone else who needs it. Leftovers also have been shared with the food pantry operating out of The Pentecostals church in Gnaw Bone.
To date, pop-up food pantries have served 1,841 households with close to 85,000 pounds of food, Robinson said. With pandemic relief money, increased SNAP food benefits and tax returns helping to prop up family budgets, Shirley Boardman said they are also seeing a significant decline in traffic at St. Vincent De Paul’s Saturday and Monday food pantries.
“It was evident that we were going through a shift,” she said.
Now, their meetings consist of “Where we are, what we are doing and where do we go from here?” she said.
Boardman believes that the decline in pantry pickups doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t still a significant number of people facing food insecurity. She knows of senior citizens without transportation or those unaware of the options at their disposal.
“That’s a group that we still have to get creative on how we’re going to address that situation,” Boardman said.
“Getting access to food (to distribute) isn’t so much the challenge; it’s finding the people where distribution needs to be made,” she added.
A May study from the University of Michigan, based on Census data, found that food insufficiency fell by about 41 percent between December 2020 and April 2021, after the last COVID relief bill and the American Rescue Plan Act were passed. The biggest gains were seen in the lowest-income households and those with children. Both actions funneled more money to households.
Numbers of Brown County residents filing for unemployment benefits have declined mostly steadily in the past year, except for a brief rise around December and January when part-time seasonal jobs often end.
The high for continued unemployment filings was 641 claims the first week of May 2020. During first week of May 2021, 85 continued claims were on that list.
First-time claimants hit a peak of 248 the second week of April 2020; they were down to 14 last week.
The benefits that some claimants were getting will be cut, though, starting June 19. Gov. Eric Holcomb decided last month to end Indiana’s participation in the federal unemployment benefits program in an effort to prompt people to fill open jobs. This will mean a decrease of $300 weekly to those receiving state unemployment insurance.
Indiana also stopped offering extended benefits to those who have run through their 26 weeks of unemployment; and ended unemployment assistance to people who wouldn’t normally qualify, like self-employed people. In addition, Holcomb reinstated the requirement that people seeking unemployment benefits must show they are actively looking for full-time work, starting June 1.
COAD and its partners are continuing to offer popup pantries for now, scaling back to one a month, with the next one scheduled for Wednesday, June 16 at the Sprunica Elementary School parking lot. It’ll run from 4:30 to 6 p.m. or while supplies last.
“If the opportunity arises via a phone call from food banks with extra food, we will take advantage of it,” Robinson said.
During summer, other food aid options have become available as well.
Brown County Schools restarted its free breakfast and lunch program on June 1 this year at three locations, thanks to a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Breakfast and lunch will be served to anyone under the age of 18 at Brown County High School, Forest Hills Apartments in Gnaw Bone and to kids attending YMCA day camp in Nashville. Diners do not have to be students of Brown County Schools.
Three- and four-day meal kits for breakfast and lunch also can be picked up drive-thru style on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 6 p.m. at the high school, Van Buren Elementary and Sprunica Elementary to feed any child younger than 18.
In addition, parents of children who qualify for free and reduced-price meals at school will receive Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) cards in the mail. Families will receive $7 per child, per weekday, about $375 per month. Nearly 650,000 Indiana children are expected to qualify, with 766 being students from Brown County schools.
EBT cards and SNAP vouchers can be used at most grocery stores, and even the Nashville Farmers Market every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Brown County Inn. With SNAP vouchers, the market doubles money spent up to $10.
Farmers market board President Kara Hammes said that the use of vouchers has increased every market season.
“It’s a few people using it really consistently,” she said, “and we’d welcome more.”
In 2020, the market redeemed a total of $467 in food program vouchers: $157 in SNAP, $58 in WIC and $252 in EBT. In 2019, Debbie Herring said the numbers were about $150 total and “insignificant” in 2018.
This year so far, $58 has been redeemed in doubled vouchers in only one month. The market season ends the last weekend of October.
An increase in these benefits can mean a decrease in the utilization of other community resources.
Much of NBCFA’s food response has been affiliated with a church, Boardman said, and a new group, the Interfaith Alliance, will form among local churches and organize lay people from their congregations.
“There are probably only half of our people in our county affiliated with a church, and some may be suspicious (of church activity),” she said. “We’re figuring out how we hold on to people who are most vulnerable.”
Mother's Cupboard Food Pantry in Nashville also has seen declines in demand. Before the pandemic, they’d serve nearly 100 hot meals per day. Now, they’re serving an average of 45.
Chef Sherry Houze also attributed the increase in SNAP benefits and a variety of pop-up food pantry options for the shift in numbers.
Houze said the decline is both a good and bad thing — though they don’t have as many mouths to feed, there are other options and tools that people are utilizing.
Mother’s Cupboard has been serving hot meals at a walk-up window and the pantry in the lobby has been closed to the public since last March.
“We’re slowly starting to pick back up and get things organized,” Houze said. “We have quite a bit of inventory built up, so when we do open back up, we’ll have stocked shelves.”