COLUMBUS — As inflation continues to drive up prices for groceries, gas and housing, more and more Bartholomew County residents are turning to food banks to eat.
Currently, two local food banks — Love Chapel and Salvation Army — are seeing near record numbers of people seeking help with groceries, and officials fear that demand is going to further increase in the coming months.
Collectively, the two non-profits have served at least 5,700 people this month, which is the equivalent of about 1 in 13 Bartholomew County residents.
“We have seen a huge increase this calendar year,” said Kelly Daugherty, executive director of Love Chapel. “…It’s in the same ballpark as our highest (level of demand) ever.”
So far this year, Love Chapel has seen a 25% to 30% increase in demand compared to last year, Daugherty said. That amounts to about 4,800 people who are depending on the non-profit to eat.
Additionally, Love Chapel has seen higher-than-expected turnout at mobile food distributions in Elizabethtown and Taylorsville, where a collective 177 families received food last month, Daugherty said. Another 15 families turned out for an evening food distribution last month, including five new families.
Currently, the nonprofit is distributing 140,000 pounds of food per month, putting the organization on pace to give out 1.68 million pounds of food this year, up from nearly 1.4 million last year.
“Unless we see a drop in the inflation rate … I think it could get worse,” Daugherty said.
The situation is similar at Salvation Army, with levels of demand approaching all-time highs, officials said.
During the first 29 days of March, the organization served 902 people and is now seeing an average of five to 10 new families each week, including two new families within the first hour after opening on Tuesday, said Nancy Johnson, social services manager at Salvation Army.
“We have been picking up more new people since they cut back on the food stamps, and by now, people are probably out of their tax checks,” Johnson said.
For its part, the Columbus East Food Pantry has seen “pretty steady” demand at its monthly community food distributions, with 203 families turning out for food this past Friday, said Greg Lewis, coordinator of the pantry and Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. teacher.
The pantry plans to hold community food distributions in April and May but will then transition to focusing on students, which was the initial mission of the pantry, Lewis said. In an announcement about the April distribution, the pantry said, “there will be community food distributions on April 22nd and May 20th, but please note that the Columbus East Food Pantry community distributions will be coming to an end after the May 20th distribution.”
Lewis, who is retiring from teaching in May, said stopping the community distributions “is not a decision that we made lightly.” He hopes to develop a transition plan for other teachers to take over for him for the pantry once he retires.
Chanda Welsh distributes food from the Columbus East food pantry at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, March 25, 2022.
For the complete story, see Thursday’s Republic.
