Love Chapel is on track for a record shortfall this year due to an unprecedented rise in demand for help with groceries in Bartholomew County, prompting the organization to search for new solutions as it confronts what officials described as a “crossroads.”

The organization, which operates a food pantry at 292 Center St. in Columbus, is currently on pace for a record $200,000 shortfall this year driven by “incredible demand for food,” said Love Chapel Executive Director Kelly Daugherty. By comparison, Love Chapel had a $20,000 deficit last year.

Currently, Love Chapel has the financial reserves to cover the shortfall, though officials warned that running a $200,000 deficit each year is not sustainable. The organization has no plans to close, Daugherty said.

“We can’t keep running at a deficit each year,” Daugherty said. “…We have reserves right now. We’ve always tried to keep six to nine months of reserves just for rainy days and things like that, but this is going to eat into that quite a bit. …You can’t do that more than once or twice before you’re out of money.”

Daugherty said the deficit has prompted Love Chapel to search for a development director to help increase the organization’s revenue to keep pace with record demand for help with food in Bartholomew County, which he does not expect to decline anytime soon.

The organization has already started interviewing for the new role and is planning, among other things, to hold some signature fundraising events that Love Chapel has not held in the past and hope to be “doing a better job of reaching out to businesses to see what they can help with,” Daugherty said.

“We’re at a crossroads,” Daugherty said. “I’m not saying that we’re going to close the doors or anything like that, because we’re not. But we have to become more creative with how we raise funds to meet the need in the future because (demand for help with food) is not going to get any better.”

Earlier this year, Love Chapel officials said the number of Bartholomew County families seeking help with groceries had increased in recent years largely driven by inflation, the end of pandemic-era aid and what some local officials said might reflect growing inequality.

The organization served an average of 1,400 families per month last year and through the first eight months of this year, which was up from 750 families per month two years ago.

However, from September to October of this year, Love Chapel saw about a 6% to 7% increase in demand — and it has only grown since then.

Love Chapel served 1,700 families in November — the highest total ever in a single month. Daugherty said “it’s very likely” that the organization will set a new record this month.

As of Dec. 20, Love Chapel had served over 100 families in a single day on six separate occasions, including on Dec. 11, when the organization set a record for the most families served in a single day — 114 in just three hours.

“That’s flat out as fast as we can get the food out the door,” Daugherty said.

The update from Love Chapel comes as the number of Bartholomew County residents experiencing food insecurity rose in 2022 to its highest total in at least 13 years, according to the most recent data from Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger organization.

The rise in local food insecurity in 2022 coincides with Indiana’s decision to end pandemic-related enhanced food stamp benefits, as well as inflation that started spiking in 2021 and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.

Food insecurity is described as a lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Data from Feeding America shows that an additional 2,800 Bartholomew County residents experienced food insecurity in 2022 compared to the year before. Overall, 11,320 local residents were food insecure in 2022 — the highest total on record in data going back to 2009.

A total of 13.7% of local residents — nearly 1 in 7 people — experienced food insecurity in 2022, up from 10.4% in 2021 and the highest percentage since 2009, when 14.1% of local residents were food insecure, when the country was reeling from the Great Recession.

A nationally representative survey released earlier this year by the Urban Institute found that food hardship continued to rise across the country in 2023. Last year, 27% of U.S. adults reported experiencing food insecurity, up from 24.9% in 2022 and 22.5% in 2019, according to the survey.

“(Food insecurity) is a real thing in our community. It’s a real thing nationwide, and it’s not getting better,” Daugherty said. “People are hurting right now. …(The) unemployment rate is going up, prices are going up, but yet wages aren’t.”
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