Mike Wolanin | The Republic Volunteer Deidre Nabors sorts baked goods at the Love Chapel Food Pantry in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.
Love Chapel has seen near record numbers of families seeking help with groceries so far this month after federal food assistance lapsed for nearly 5,400 low-income Bartholomew County residents amid the government shutdown.
Food assistance for November under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, lapsed on Saturday after the Trump administration initially refused to tap billions in reserve funds Congress had designated for the program in the event of funding emergencies, The Associated Press reported.
While the Trump administration said Monday it would partially fund SNAP for November — following rulings by two judges requiring the government to keep the program running — it is unclear when people would receive any payments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the SNAP program, said in a court filing that it could take weeks or even months for people to receive the reduced payments.
But by Tuesday, President Donald Trump appeared to contradict his own administration’s position and the court orders, saying the federal government would stop administering the program altogether until the end of the government shutdown.
The White House then walked back Trump’s comments, with press secretary Karoline Levitt saying the administration continues to pay out SNAP funding using contingency funding, which is what two separate judges ordered on Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to freeze SNAP payments starting Nov. 1 because of a lapse in funds during the government shutdown.
In a social media post Tuesday morning, Trump said SNAP benefits had been handed out “haphazardly” under his predecessor. SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” Trump added.
The government says the emergency fund it will use has enough to cover about half the normal benefits. Leavitt said Trump “does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future,” which is what he meant by his social media post earlier in the day.
As local recipients continue to wait for the payments, Love Chapel nearly set an all-time record on Saturday for the most families served in a single day, according to Kelly Daugherty, the organization’s executive director.
A total of 97 families turned up at the food pantry seeking help with groceries in three hours on Saturday, just shy of the all-time record of 104 families served in a single day in December 2024, Daugherty said. On Monday, Love Chapel served an additional 88 families in three hours.
Daugherty said he expects the lapse in SNAP benefits to cause a “tremendous uptick” in demand at Love Chapel but added it’s too soon to tell how much of the near record-high demand this month is due to the missed payments.
As of midday Monday, the organization had received calls from about a dozen people who had never been to Love Chapel before and were seeking information on what they needed to do to get food, Daugherty said.
“We getting close to record levels,” Daugherty said. “…We are definitely getting a lot of calls about how do we access the pantry, which we assume that’s because of the SNAP benefits, and then on top of that, we’ve seen two very busy sessions so far.”
Food pantries scramble
The lapse in SNAP benefits has put strain on food banks and pantries across the country, including in Bartholomew County, as they scramble to brace for an increase in demand for food.
SNAP serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs more than $8 billion per month nationally, according to wire reports. The government says an emergency fund it will use has $4.65 billion — enough to cover about half the normal benefits.
A total of 5,382 Bartholomew County residents — 2,735 households — received a collective $1.01 million in SNAP benefits in September, according to the latest data from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. Love Chapel puts the number of affected local households at more than 3,000.
Individual SNAP recipients in Bartholomew County received an average of $187.82 in September, according to FSSA. Local households received an average of $369.59.
About 6,000 Bartholomew County residents — around 1,500 families — turn to Love Chapel for food each month, Daugherty said. At least two-thirds of them receive SNAP benefits.
Love Chapel generally spends “somewhere in the neighborhood” of $350,000 to $360,000 per month on food, Daugherty said. Even if local residents receive half of their SNAP benefits this month, that could add demand for an additional $500,000 in food this month.
“We have to prepare for the worst,” Daugherty said. “…We’re going under the premise that nobody is going to receive any payments in the month, and that we’re going to try and meet the needs the best we can under those circumstances.”
Love Chapel has started a SNAP Benefit Relief Fund for online donations at givebutter.com/iDIOrP. So far, a local business has donated $25,000, while Love Chapel’s foundation has “levied up” $15,000 and at least eight to 10 people dropped off food donations on Monday, Daugherty said.
“All of the money that’s donated for that will go to help replace food that our folks on SNAP have gotten cut out of,” Daugherty said.
Additionally, United Way of Bartholomew County sounded the alarm last week, announcing that it is partnering with local social service organizations to assess and respond to the needs of residents affected by missed SNAP payments amid the government shutdown.
Residents needing additional help during this time can turn to local food assistance organizations, including Love Chapel, Community Center of Hope and the Salvation Army.
“We are encouraging everyone in the community to come together to ensure no family goes hungry during this challenging time,” United Way of Bartholomew County President Mark Stewart said in a statement last week.
‘The biggest scare’
At the same time, food pantries like Love Chapel could face growing challenges procuring food should the shutdown persist.
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana — which generally supplies about 10% to 15% of the food at Love Chapel — has been unable to order food through the U.S. Department of Agriculture amid the shutdown, Daugherty said.
“The biggest scare is how long is this (shutdown) going to take?” Daugherty said previously. “Because if it goes another month, then December’s at play. And the other side of it is that the food banks that we rely on, like Gleaners, have not received any shipments of food from the USDA because of the government shutdown. Gleaners assured us they still have enough food, but another month of this and they probably are going to start running out of different types of items. So, it’s going to make it that much harder for us to procure food.”
“I think it’s going to rely on individuals and organizations coming together to try and provide for that need,” Daugherty added. “…I know our organization wants to find a way to be able to provide additional benefits through their visits at the pantry, but that has to be tapered in the fact that we’re going to probably see a tremendous uptick in the number of people that we’re serving.”
In the meantime, Louisiana, New Mexico, Vermont, among other states, have announced plans, including some with bipartisan support, to funnel reserve funds to SNAP recipients or boost funding to food pantries, according to wire reports.
At least for now, Indiana lawmakers have opted against doing so. Republicans on Indiana’s State Budget Committee have rejected an effort to direct state surplus funding to low-income Hoosiers and food banks as federal SNAP benefits expire, The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.
Shutdown could be longest ever
The near record demand for food at Love Chapel comes as the government shutdown is poised to become the longest ever this week as the impasse between Democrats and Republicans has dragged into a new month, according to the AP.
Millions of people stand to lose food aid benefits, health care subsidies are set to expire. Republicans and Democrats continue to blame each other for the impasse that led to the shutdown that started Oct. 1.
Republican leaders have blamed Democrats, arguing that the solution was for Democrats in the Senate to allow for passage of their short-term funding patch that has so far failed 13 times in that chamber, according to wire reports. The Republican-controlled House has been out of session since mid-September after passing a bill that would fund the government through Nov. 21.
Democrats have withheld support for Republican-backed bill to get concessions on healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, that are set to expire, according to wire reports. Republican leaders have said they they will discuss the subsidies when the government opens.
So far, Democrats have shown no signs publicly that they are backing away from their insistence that a government funding bill also include help for millions of Americans who purchase health insurance coverage on the exchanges established through the Affordable Care Act.
This year, 3,516 Bartholomew County residents received the subsidies under the ACA — about 4% of the county’s population — according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which tracks enrollment through the ACA.
In the meantime, Trump has urged Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes, instead of a simple majority of 51 votes, to pass most legislation — a move that seemingly acknowledges that Republicans could end the shutdown without any support from Democrats but have so far chosen not to.
Republicans hold 53 of 100 Senate seats. Vice President JD Vance may also cast a tie-breaking vote.
While the shutdown continues, local organizations say they will be relying on donations and prayer to make sure Bartholomew County residents don’t go hungry.
“It’s ludicrous on both sides of the aisle,” Daugherty said. “I’m not political in any way, shape or form, but they’ve got to get their act together and get back to doing business so these folks can get their benefits back.”
