Columbus foodies will get another shot at unlimited bites from more than 20 local restaurants and drink vendors when Taste of Columbus returns to The Commons from 5 to 8 p.m. on October 7, with every $35 ticket helping fund Love Chapel's food pantry and homeless shelter operations. This marks the event's second year back after a five-year hiatus, and organizers say the need behind it has never been greater.
Love Chapel is organizing its second year running the event, according to The Republic News, after the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce formerly ran Taste of Columbus. Last year's revival drew roughly 300 attendees and raised around $10,000 for the nonprofit, per the same report. This time, ticketholders 21 and older can sample sweet and savory dishes using a tasting passport, cast votes for Chef's Kiss Awards in categories like best sweet item, best savory item, most unique item and best overall pick, and browse a silent auction while Ryan Furr and Anna Krueger, who performed at last year's event, provide live music.
A Food Pantry Stretched Thin
Love Chapel serves as Columbus' food pantry and also manages the Brighter Days homeless shelter, offering financial assistance alongside its core services. Per the article, the organization distributed nearly 2 million pounds of food last year and served more than 14,000 households, even as it faces a five percent annual increase in the number of people it serves. The pantry itself has no waiting area, a physical limitation the outlet notes as the nonprofit weighs plans to expand and better serve the community.
Allison Kunkler, Love Chapel's development director, told the outlet that the organization is struggling to keep up with growing demand. “Taste of Columbus supports a nonprofit and celebrates what Columbus has to offer,” Kunkler said, according to the report. Nonprofits generally face challenges funding themselves without diversified support, and events like this one have become central to bridging that gap.
Decades of Interfaith Support
Love Chapel's roots trace back to 1967, when the Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches formed as a multi-denominational coalition seeking to pool community assistance resources, later establishing Love Chapel as its primary outreach ministry, according to Love Chapel. The assembly has since grown to include 24 member churches and 35 supporting churches across the county, a network that lets Love Chapel fund its food pantry and housing operations largely without government subsidies.
That structure recently got a milestone spotlight of its own. Brighter Days Emergency Housing marked the 10th anniversary of its shelter at 421 S. Mapleton St. earlier this month, having rehoused 33 individuals in 2025 and 29 more through late September 2026, as The Republic reported. Under Love Chapel's own guidelines, residents can stay up to 60 days under active case management, while drop-in winter freeze protections run from November 21 to March 21 without requiring case management participation.
Feeding the County Beyond Downtown
Love Chapel's reach extends well past its main pantry at 292 Center Street. The nonprofit runs four monthly mobile pantries in Elizabethtown, Taylorsville, Hope and rural Bartholomew County, letting main pantry clients also collect weekly bread and produce allotments, according to Love Chapel's own program materials. Its weekend backpack program delivers supplemental food to more than 800 elementary students across 13 county schools each week, at an annual cost between $80,000 and $96,000.
The scale of that need is backed by outside data. Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana recorded a 13% jump in food assistance demand across Bartholomew County in late 2023 as inflation and housing costs squeezed household budgets. Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap research previously found a 14.8% child food insecurity rate in the county, representing nearly 3,000 food-insecure children and an annual countywide food budget shortfall exceeding $4.8 million, according to Stacker.
Love Chapel's own internal figures for 2026 show the demand hasn't let up: more than 1.21 million pounds of food distributed and over 15,600 school care packages handed out through the first nine months of the year, while serving over 1,200 families per month. Taste of Columbus takes place at The Commons, 300 Washington St., the city-owned downtown venue known for housing Swiss artist Jean Tinguely's Chaos I kinetic sculpture.
