The local community’s need for food assistance continues to increase just as agencies and organizations that ensure people don’t go hungry are feeling the squeeze of inflation.
This is a story that The Republic’s Andy East has been covering in the last couple of years, but both the local needs and the worries of charities about being able to meet those needs continue to grow. Last week, East reported that the area’s largest food pantry, Love Chapel, is serving close to twice as many people this year as it did in 2021. A couple of years ago, the average number of families served per month was about 750. This year, between 1,400 and 1,450 households each month are being served.
At Salvation Army, also a major local provider of food assistance, 44 new families sought aid last month, bringing the total to 583 families, or 1,195 people.
“We’ve never been in this stratosphere,” Love Chapel director Kelly Daugherty told East of the rising demand. “We’re keeping up with it from a financial perspective, but I just worry if it continues on over the years how we will keep up with it.”
Food insecurity is a pressing issue in Bartholomew County and across Indiana. As East reported, “In Bartholomew County, about 8,520 people, including 2,030 children, were experiencing food insecurity in 2021, according to the most recent data available from Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger organization.”
That is roughly 10% of our county’s population, and remember, those numbers are from 2021. That number is almost certain to be higher by now, because food prices have soared since then.
Our community is blessed to have Love Chapel, Salvation Army and other food pantries that are filling the gap, but they should not have to meet this rising need by themselves. There is a necessary public role to play in addressing a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this week on this page, The Republic published a letter to the editor on behalf of members of two local congregations — First Presbyterian Church and St. Bartholomew Catholic Church. They and others in our area, in collaboration with the Columbus Bread For The World chapter, have written hundreds of letters petitioning members of our local congressional delegation — Rep. Greg Pence and Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young — to “support a Farm Bill that fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program without adding additional obstacles that restrict access to this vital program. In addition, we ask that they support incentives that allow SNAP participants to purchase more fresh fruits and vegetables.”
We agree. SNAP benefits, a true lifeline for those with low, modest or fixed incomes, have not kept pace with inflation. They should, and our members of Congress should support a Farm Bill that links those benefits to the rising cost of food and also encourages healthy diets.
Love Chapel, Salvation Army and other charities that keep families from going hungry are not immune to the sticker shock that most of us have felt at the grocery store in the past couple of years. Their dollars only go so far too, especially when more people that ever need their help. Our local members of Congress should help by answering a basic call to service from those they represent who need it the most.
