This is traditionally a tough time of year for food banks, and this year is even tougher. Raising enough money to meet the needs of those who may not know where their next meal is coming from is always challenging, but that’s especially true when folks are thinking about spring break, warm weather and summer vacations.
Yet community food banks need our help because the need never ends, and lately, the need keeps growing.
This week, organizers of the 24th annual Empty Bowls fundraiser in Columbus extended their drive through the end of March after falling short of their $20,000 fundraising goal. As of March 15, Empty Bowls had raised a little more than $16,000. The fundraiser benefits food banks at Love Chapel, Horizon House homeless shelter, Community Center of Hope, Turning Point Domestic Violence Services, Columbus Salvation Army and Thrive Alliance.
These and other food banks do all they can to battle hunger among vulnerable populations. They weathered the pandemic, even as food shortages at times hindered their ability to procure and provide the nourishing foods they aim to.
For any number of reasons, the volume of people requiring food bank assistance in our community has risen, and that is straining the food banks’ ability to serve those in need.
Jodi Sladek, Love Chapel’s food pantry manager, wrote recently that “numbers have been increasing over last year at this time. For instance, the food pantry served 262 more households this January” than in January 2021. “With that being said, we have seen some shortages in food from the local grocers, and food donations are usually down in January through the spring months.”
It seems to be our nature that we are more charitable in the winter months and the holiday season, more agreeable at that time to sharing our bounty with those less fortunate. But charitable causes meet needs that are always present and always changing, and always reliant on our charitable giving to keep them afloat.
That will be especially true in the months ahead. For even as the pandemic eases, there’s a new double-whammy for food banks: inflation.
Not only is inflation raising the costs that food banks must pay to fill their cupboards, it’s also pressuring household budgets, meaning more people will have to turn to food banks to make their own food dollars stretch.
The annual inflation rate for the 12 months ending in February was 7.9% in the U.S., the highest in 40 years — back in the era of “government cheese” giveaways.
Across Indiana, residents, many of whom never consider using a food pantry or assistance program, are now struggling to make ends meet and reaching out for help, according to a report in the Kokomo Tribune.
Marcia Eckstein, the volunteer director at Kokomo’s St. Vincent De Paul food pantry and thrift store, said the outreach gave away a record-setting 1,900 pounds of food last month. She said rising prices have created the tightest crunch she’s seen in 10 years with the outreach. “We’re just getting so many extra people,” she said.
If you are able, please contribute money, nonperishable food items, or your time as a volunteer to our local food banks to help ensure that no one in our community goes hungry.
