Capt. TA Smith, back center, was one of the deputies delivering the food that the Bartholomew County Sheriff Department collected during its annual Pack a Patrol Car food drive to Love Chapel, Columbus,, Thursday, November 21, 2024. Carla Clark | For The Republic
Capt. TA Smith, back center, was one of the deputies delivering the food that the Bartholomew County Sheriff Department collected during its annual Pack a Patrol Car food drive to Love Chapel, Columbus,, Thursday, November 21, 2024. Carla Clark | For The Republic
Local food banks say they have seen large increases in demand for help with food over the past couple months, with Love Chapel seeing the number of families it serves each month more than double over the past two years.

Love Chapel, 292 Center St., said it is now serving around 1,600 families per month, up from 1,400 families last year and through the first eight months of this year, which was up from 750 families around two years ago.

“For the first eight months of the year, we averaged what we had last year and you didn’t really see an increase,” said Love Chapel Executive Director Kelly Daugherty. “But the last three months have really shown … about a 6% to 7% increase just since September.”

The Columbus Salvation Army, 2525 Illinois St., is serving about 550 families per month, said Nancy Johnson, the organization’s social services director.

“That is an increase,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “I keep growing every month. …On Nov. 12, we did 45 families in four hours. This week has been crazy. They told me they did 30 (families) on Monday, 48 on Tuesday. …We’ve already had 100 families this week.”

Overall, the two organizations are distributing food to a combined total of 2,150 Bartholomew County families per month.

While Love Chapel has been able to keep up with the heightened demand so far, Daugherty said the organization needs to “figure out better ways to raise funds” long-term and that the charity may need more space to store the food needed for demand.

Love Chapel is on pace to give out 2.4 million pounds of food this year — five times the weight of the Statue of Liberty — and up from 2.2 million pounds of food last year.

“Our biggest challenge is going to be space,” Daugherty said. “…We’re paying rent on an offsite warehouse just to try to keep up with the space that we need, and we’re just bursting at the seams at the pantry.”

The Salvation  Army, for its part, has been sending produce to Arbors at Water’s Edge apartment complex twice per month.

“We’re trying to reach out and take care of those folks,” Johnson said. “That’s an 152-unit apartment complex.”

Both Love Chapel and Salvation  Army said they we would welcome any donations, though they said they could really use dry goods like peanut butter, cereal, beans, rice, ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese.

However, given the high demand for help with food, “even if (a donated item) is something that we have tons of, we’ll use it,” Daugherty said.

The update from local food pantries 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.

“There are a lot of people hurting, and we have to figure out how to fix it economically,” Daugherty said.
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