Food insecurity is more common than most people realize. According to Feeding America, 1 in 7 people experience hunger. The USDA presents a more sobering fact: 13.7% of Americans, or 18.3 million, experienced food insecurity as of 2024. What these statistics don’t show is the number of people who are both food insecure and unhoused. For the unhoused, the rate of food insecurity is closer to 60%. This is heartbreaking, and the process of food insecurity starts before someone becomes unhoused and can, in fact, be a catalyst for becoming unhoused.
The Tipping Point
For anyone living paycheck to paycheck, every cent is accounted for. Rent, utilities, the phone bill, and the water bill are all set costs each month. Every dollar earned is allocated to these bills. Now, what happens if the car breaks down, someone in the household needs to visit the doctor, or even worse, there’s a reduction in hours at work or a job loss? What is the first bill that can get cut from that list? Often, none of the ones listed, so the food budget is where things begin to get left off.
Anti-hunger advocates have a phrase for this: “rent eats first.” When a paycheck runs short, families pay the rent, then the lights, then they figure out what’s left for groceries. The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), a national policy and research organization, reports that about 10.4 million renter households are now spending half or more of their income on housing, which leaves families without adequate resources to pay for food. The Harvard Joint Center research through the FRAC goes on to say that the most severely cost-burdened renters spent 38 percent less on food and 70 percent less on health care than their peers who are not cost-burdened.
How One Issue Becomes Another
A family struggling to pay rent cuts their grocery bill, maybe skipping meals or feeding only the children, living on the bare minimum to keep a roof over their heads. Without proper nutrition, health declines, and work attendance suffers. When work suffers, income drops. When income drops, rent becomes harder to pay, and eviction proceedings begin. Without the funds to fight the eviction or make up past rent plus fees, housing is lost.
A family that has already lost housing faces the same situation in reverse. Without a kitchen, food costs more and offers less nutrition. Without a refrigerator, groceries cannot be stored. Without a stable address, applying for SNAP benefits and other assistance becomes significantly harder. Food insecurity deepens, and with it, the physical and mental health conditions that make returning to stable housing even harder.
In a study published in Preventive Medicine Reports, the link between food insecurity and health outcomes in unhoused adults found that food insecurity is associated with self-rated poor health, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. A separate analysis of national health survey data published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that adults with food insecurity had more than three times the odds of co-occurring depression and cardiometabolic disease, such as diabetes or heart disease, when compared with food-secure adults.
The American Psychiatric Association summarizes the mental health impact simply: food insecurity is directly linked to depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders, and it exacerbates the physiological and psychological effects of existing mental health conditions.
Hunger changes the body and the brain, and shrinks a person’s capacity to navigate their way out of a crisis. Food is not a nice-to-have; it is a basic human need.
Where To Get Help In Michigan City
If you or someone you know needs help with food assistance, we have many organizations in our community that provide it. The following pantries and soup kitchens serve residents of Michigan City and LaPorte County. Hours may change, so please call ahead. Information was verified against the Food Bank of Northern Indiana directory and a WNDU-compiled regional list published in November 2025.
Sacred Heart Food Pantry at St. Mary 10th and Buffalo Streets, Michigan City Wednesdays: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Fridays: 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (the only pantry in Michigan City with evening hours). Also offers cleaning supplies, hygiene items, and over-the-counter medications.
Salvation Army Michigan City Food Pantry 1201 S. Franklin Street, Michigan City (219) 874-6885 Tuesdays and Thursdays: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Serves residents in the Michigan City School District.
Arise and Shine Food and Outreach Center 1010 W. Garfield Street, Michigan City Food pantry hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Also offers a weekly free hot breakfast and a community clothing closet.
Trinity Episcopal Church Food Pantry 600 Franklin Square, Michigan City (219) 874-4355 Every other Wednesday: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Serves residents of LaPorte County.
Citizens Concerned for the Homeless Mobile Food Distribution. Call 1-219-809-9903. To find out when and where the mobile distribution site is happening, you can visit their Facebook page for more information.
Faith City Assembly Food Pantry 1314 S. Woodland Avenue, Michigan City (219) 872-6235 Tuesdays: 9:30 a.m. to noon.
Macedonia Baptist Missionary Church Pantry and Soup Kitchen 3007 Ohio Street, Michigan City (219) 874-2221 Every other Friday: 9 a.m. to noon.
First Presbyterian Church Soup Kitchen, 121 W. 9th Street, Michigan City, (219) 879-4501. Saturdays: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
First United Methodist Church Soup Kitchen, 121 E. 7th Street, Michigan City, (219) 872-7200. Mondays and Thursdays: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
New Disciple Love Fellowship Soup Kitchen 1411 Pine Street, Michigan City (219) 879-3268 Tuesdays: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For residents elsewhere in LaPorte County, the Pax Center in LaPorte and the Community Food Pantry of Galena, Hudson, Kankakee, and Wills Township in Rolling Prairie are additional resources.
The connection between an empty pantry and an empty apartment is real, and the earlier the intervention, the better the outcome.
