Food insecurity increasing: Love Chapel serves more families as state cuts back on helping food-insecure students

Love Chapel is continuing to an increase in the number of families seeking help with groceries, with officials saying they would not be surprised to see record-breaking demand this year.

In March, 1,385 families turned to Love Chapel for help with obtaining food, said executive director Kelly Daugherty, who is still compiling figures for April. By comparison, Love Chapel served 1,093 families in March 2024.

“We saw an increase of about 60 families in March,” Daugherty said. “I don’t have the final numbers for April, but I think it was up another 100 families. …I don’t see (demand) going down. We’re already roughly 250 families more at this point this year versus last year, and I think that’s going to continue. I would not be surprised to see us end the year averaging 1,700 families.”

Serving an average of 1,700 families per month would be a 13% increase in average monthly demand from last year and more than double the monthly average of 750 families in 2022.

In December, Love Chapel served a record 1,698 families in December in what Daugherty said he believes was largely driven by a tougher job market, inflation and stagnant wages.

The update from Love Chapel 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.

Earlier this week, The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported that state officials have declined to participate this year in a federal program that provides $120 in grocery benefits per eligible school-age child during the summer months when school is closed.

A total of 669,000 Indiana students participated in the program, called SUN Bucks, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, citing records with USDA.

Daugherty said he is concerned that the state’s decision to not participate in the program will increase demand.

“My fear is it will drive up (demand at Love Chapel),” Daugherty said.

In the meantime, Daugherty said Love Chapel is moving to a new system in which food recipients will receive a membership card that they will bring when they pick up food.

The goal of the membership cards is to help track the number of visits people make, ensure that nobody is overusing the system and to speed up intake, Daugherty said.

“We just started this week,” Daugherty said. “But after they’re issued, they just show their card, and then it’s going to be really quick for intake, so it will save a lot of time.”

The food pantry is also hoping to step up efforts to work with local businesses to do food drives to help meet the increased need and started business sponsorships this year.

So far, Love Chapel has 11 business sponsorships, Daugherty said.

“(Demand) just continues to grow,” he said. “We’ve got to find new and interesting ways to raise food and funds. …We’re really focusing on trying to find new ways to be able to fund what we do, because the alternative would be to cut, and that’s not what we want to do.”