INDIANAPOLIS — Donald Stephens is a client and volunteer at Crooked Creek Food Pantry on the northwest side of Indianapolis.
He is on disability and says inflation has made it nearly impossible to get all the things he needs.
"It's hard for me to buy anything because a loaf of bread is $2 now, it used to be 89 cents,” Stephens said. “If it wasn't for the pantry, I couldn't make it."
Stephens isn't alone. Since 2020, more people have been turning to food banks.
"During 2023, we were up 100% from 2021, and up 33% from 2022,” Zachary Fawbush, Operations Manager at Crooked Creek Food Pantry, said. “So, our numbers are raising."
Those numbers could keep rising.
Every five years, congress has to pass the Farm Bill. It funds programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
"Any impact to the SNAP program means that the lines get longer and longer, and we still see long lines,” Emily Weikert-Bryant, Executive Director of Feeding Indiana's Hungry, said. “Looking at this pantry, and a lot of other places, a lot folks in our network are still doing drive-thru because they don’t have the capacity to serve people one on one."
According to Feeding America, SNAP benefits are calculated through the thrifty food plan.
In 2021, that plan was modernized and increased SNAP benefits for first time since the 1970's, but a current proposal would change that.
"They want to make changes to the SNAP program and how the benefits are calculated would amount to about $30 billion in benefits lost over a period of time by people across the country,” Weikert-Bryant said.
If that happens, food pantries say they will feel the impact directly.
"So, if we get more people, we are going to have to reduce the amount of food we give or find a lot more funding to continue to give people enough to survive,” Fawbush said.
According to the state of Indiana’s website, around 926,000 Hoosiers currently receive SNAP benefits, which equals out to about 16% of the population.
Congress has until September of this year to pass a Farm Bill. Leaders have yet to say when it will become a priority.
